Category — Artistic Encounters

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When I set out to build my portfolio I realized one thing: I would be a godlike photographer if I could freeze time and assume any angle for my shot. However, things aren’t that simple. Photography takes courage and a certain artistic sort of confidence that reciprocates the esteem of the introvert poet. Any of my former art endeavors were rooted in the latter, and this influenced my approach to taking these photographs. I used a Sony DSC-TX7 point-and-shoot camera that was essentially at belly button level and I just took countless random photos as I was making laps around Union Square park, the almost cliché cultural center of urban life in Manhattan. The products were absolutely random, but I accomplished the imaginary. I froze time and saw what I wanted to see. I tried to produce the photos that I would have taken if I could defy the laws of physics and move myself about like a phantom. To accomplish this, I flipped through the random photos and cropped the photos by applying my perspective, some of the cropped material comes from just 10% of the original photo. In some instances I took just one face out of fifteen and developed a single canvas for that head. It’s difficult to defend this approach and, aside from Union Square’s urban clustering, it may be difficult to pick up a solid theme through the portfolio, but what I focused on in creating these images was the subject’s expression of thought or physiognomy.
I wanted to elicit questions from the viewer, for him to wonder what the subject was thinking. Of course there isn’t a straightforward answer, and in some cases there are several faces in a photo juxtaposed against one another. In a particular photo there are two women engaging in a conversation and a homeless person with his or her head retired upon his lap. I interpreted these two subjects as emotional polarities, and picking them out and producing them in this sort of juxtaposition was essentially what I set out to do.
All the shots were produced in black and white (or grayscale) because I felt that the color wasn’t necessary to illustrate the subject’s thoughts or expression. On the contrary, removing color creates a more reliable medium and allows the viewer to focus on the natural and human aspects in the picture, rather then getting distracted by the vibrant commercialism of New York City. I was not trying to make my photos vintage per se.
In one way, I felt that I drew inspiration from Philip-Lorca diCorcia. I took a series of candid photos but also arbitrarily imposed my reality onto the image. While diCorcia didn’t blatantly crop his photos and I didn’t exploit lighting in mine, there is a blend of his methods that influenced my style.
I did not use a specific naming system because I did not want to predispose the viewer to a particular perception. Instead I stated the obvious.

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Pigeons fly lower these days, rats scamper through the streets, and cockroaches are on subways, streets, and on buildings; yet when one actively looks for them, somehow they seem to go into hiding.  Finding pigeons was not much of an issue, and neither were squirrels if I sat at a park long enough, but squirrels were quite elusive.  I saw many interesting squirrels; one eating newly planted seeds right by a sign that said not to enter the area, one digging for food, another diving in and out of potted plants, and another that slapped a fence as a baby ogled at it.  Yet I could not capture any of these moments; they all disappeared too fast.  There was a pigeon sitting atop the edge of a bench and a woman at the other end; a squirrel climbed up and sat staring at the pigeon, but too close to the women who was startled and scared the squirrel away.

I wanted to capture “creatures,” some bit of nature that we don’t experience we live in a city.  There would be blocks upon blocks of nothing creature related: no sculptures, random art, or actual critters.  Yet creatures are not just from nature, others can create them; representation of creatures also falls under such a category of creation.  I found many more living creatures in Brooklyn and Queens than in Manhattan, yet many more representations in Manhattan.  Centuries ago, the area we know as New York City used to be one of the most biodiverse areas, and as it became industrialized and a center of commerce, the presence of animals has declined.  Then there are the animals that we would never see here like elephants and monkeys, that are interesting to see represented and how we place them.  And there are the humans (that dress up as Elmo or are some sort of green monster creation) that are our creations.

Back home in Queens, there are usually worms in bits of dirt, some ants between the concrete, and perhaps a raccoon at night digging through the trash.  Yet of all the times this has occurred, I could capture none.  There is also a stray cat prowling the streets, yet none passed when I looked for one.  Usually in subway stations, rats can be seen running around the tracks.  At the 14th Street F and M train station, there are cracks in the wall where rats can be seen sometimes scurrying quickly in and out of the holes, swerving around the people on the platforms and sometimes fat rats ambling along, seemingly drunk.  At nights, rats can be seen scampering right in front of a person walking in the street.  I positioned myself and I waited.  And the creatures never appeared.

There was a moment on the subway where there was a cockroach climbing on the window that my friend killed and another where a moth the size of a palm was scaring some people.  Yet I didn’t have a camera at the ready, and was even if I did, wouldn’t want others to think I was some strange person taking these photos.  It’s interesting how people react in front of the camera; I tried not to include them in the photos, and sometimes not so discreetly walked by and took the shot as I passed.  Many of the photos are zoomed in and cropped because of this.  Perhaps if I just pretended I were a tourist, I could’ve taken more time with each shot.  But then again, I wouldn’t know quite what I was looking for.

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Note: Photo is incorrectly labeled NY Life Building, it is in fact the Met Life Tower, Sorry!

New York City is full of tall buildings, historic landmarks and generally well-known points of interest; it has everything one can think of, and then some. Yet amidst the hustle, and bustle, and grandness that Manhattan has to offer, certain things are often left ignored. These things, often trite or commonplace usually have no significance in being overlooked; it struck me however that one oft-unnoticed thing happens to be the Flag of the United States of America. Of all things, our country’s flag is probably the greatest symbol of unity of some 300-plus million Americans; it seems that at moments of hardship for our country, flags seem to pop up everywhere, at most other times though, their prevalence dwindles. Yet, their presence is undeniable, so for my street photography project, I set out to visit different points of Manhattan in search of the American flag.

In my twelve-photo set, the one shared theme throughout is not only the capturing of the American flag, but doing so within the larger scope of more recognizable places throughout the City. I tried to accomplish this (in some of the photos) by entirely shifting the focus off of the world renowned buildings onto the American flags seen in the photos. Part of the irony that hopefully my photos gave off was the fact that normally when one gazes at the Empire State Building, or the Radio City Music Hall, one’s attention is focused onto the building itself, however in my photographs, the center of attention is always on the American flag, contrary to how one may view the scene in real life.

The idea for the set came to me several weeks ago, and was solidified as I walked down the parade route of the Veterans Day Parade. However unnoticed the flags may be, one thing was obviously apparent: they happen to be everywhere in the city. Up and down the streets, lining parks, placed on the sides, tops and bases of buildings, the ‘Stars and Stripes’ can be seen flying in all their glory. For something so present in the city (and in many cases so large), it amazes me that so often one can pass them by without noticing our country’s most widely recognized symbol. Whatever the case, I understood that the flags were there and I set out to capture them in various scenes.

Upon deciding on the theme, the actual part of taking the pictures was pretty simple. It just so happens that at most points of national achievement or pride, or buildings of significance, the American flag is proudly flown. Prior to taking any photos (other than three test ones), I did some research online to find out what buildings offered the best angles with American flags in view, I compiled a list of about fifteen places that I thought offered the best possibilities for my set. Taking the pictures themselves turned out to be the easy part, as I soon realized though, several elements were working against me.

As is often the case in Manhattan, scaffolding caused more problems than one in my photographic endeavors. Its presence on desired buildings, such as the Chrysler Building forced me to reevaluate my options and ultimately find new angles to shoot with. While not terrible, many of the resultant shots were not the one’s originally intended. A major case in point was my experience in Rockefeller Center.  In preparing for their annual Christmas Tree, they had set up level upon level of scaffolding both around the tree and around the famous golden statue lining the ice rink. Certainly not anticipated, my plan had to be entirely redrawn, and instead I had to settle for a nice photo of 30 Rock. Apart from their unattractiveness, the temporary structures also were troublesome in that they blocked out shots from further away.

Yet, construction scheduling ultimately ended up being secondary to the main problem that was ‘wind conditions’. Nobody likes to look at a flag when it is simply wrapped around a pole, so in many scenarios I forced either to settle for lesser desired shots, or minutes of waiting for the wind to get it right. In the end, I hope that I got the majority of the photos ‘in action.’

After taking all of the photos, I made the decision to digitally edit several of them in ways that my camera could not originally accomplish. In doing so, I sought to bring the focus onto the flags, so in many instances it is the only clear thing in the photograph. That being said, one will notice that after zooming in on the photos to the umpteenth degree that I ultimately sacrificed the integrity of the photo for the image that I had created in my mind. If viewed though in the intended dimensions, one cannot notice this, and they can be appreciated as they are hoped to be.

In setting out to capture the American flag, I set out to encapsulate not only the ‘Stars and Stripes’ themselves but the values and significance that lies underneath. In many instances, the American flag is not the only symbol of our country, but instead is joined by the likes of the Empire State Building or Times Square. Hopefully, my collection can justly show both.  Enjoy.

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At any one moment there are thousands of bags of garbage, trashcans, and dumpsters strayed across New York City. Endless piles of black bags pile up along the sidewalk, green cans stand at every corner, and dumpsters stalk the city’s alleyways. Even though garbage is all around us people try to avoid it at all costs.  Whenever a tourist, a magazine, or a native describes NY they almost always leave out the huge role that garbage plays in the city’s look, smell, and sound. The glistening bags, the roar of the garbage trucks, and the garbage’s subtle smells are ignored or avoided by the majority of pedestrians. This is why I chose garbage as my theme; in order portray garbage in a new light, to show people the hidden beauty of the most reviled and most omnipresent substance in the city.

In order to kill two birds with one stone I decided that I would take most of my pictures of garbage while I walked from Baruch to Grand Central, so that I could take the seven train home. I would look down every street, and if I found an interesting trashcan or pile of garbage I would snap some pictures using different angles. I took some other pictures in the 17 Lex building at Baruch, Flushing, Grand Central Station, and my house. It turned out that only the pictures I took in the 17 Lex building would make the cut, along with the rest of the pictures I took on my walk.

I ended up taking over one hundred photos of garbage. What followed was a very selective process of elimination. I chose the photos, which I thought, had the most creative potential. After the selection process was over I had fourteen raw photos. I took these photos and edited them all extensively. Since my theme was more about garbage in general, and not a particular style I was able to change up the style of my photos. I knew from the start that I wanted a photo with a really high aspect ratio. I think that two of my photos succeed at this. The first thing I did with each photo was crop it, so that I could get the best image out of the picture I wanted. Then I would adjust the contrast, saturation, exposure, definition, etc. I would adjust the photo until I achieved the desired affect. This varied from photo to photo; sometimes I wanted the whole photo to be saturated with color, while for other photos I would leave no color at all.

After I edited each photo I looked all of them over and then decided which two I would delete, since I would only have twelve photos in the final theme. I chose the captions using the same method as someone who takes a Rorschach test, by using the first thing that came into my mind. What I tried to accomplish, as a whole, was to illustrate how garbage was everywhere, as well as to show that, sometimes, garbage can look kind of nice.

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Sometimes I feel like I’m cheated out of the Fall season. Like a ballerina, she flutters onstage and whirls off so quickly, before I even get to watch her dance. School starts, and before I know it, it’s twenty below zero, the grass is frozen solid, and my favorite tree is naked, shivering in the cold. It happens every year, sometime mid-November. I turn around and she is gone. She escapes, stealing all the color with her, and leaving her evil winter twin to take the reign.

This year, I beat her to it. I met her onstage, and instead of staying in my seat, I swirled and twirled out of my chair and got right on stage to waltz with her. I promenaded along her rainbow foliage, pausing every so often to get snapshot of her beauty. Her radiant leaves seemed to spell R-O-Y-G-B-I-V across the azure sky.

Fall danced so brilliantly for me this year. I guess that was good timing on my part that I caught her midstep. In my Fall photo shoot, I captured the natural decor lining the streets of New York. Perspective changes from photo to photo: in some, I zoom in on her vivid hues; in others I give her room to breathe (and dance).  I try out all the different sections of the theater, trying to get different view of the dancer on the stage. I watched the Fall dancer from different angles.

Each screen shot in my collection accents the season’s colors. But in all of them, the color shimmies around the streets of my neighborhood, skipping around the bends, and twirling down the hills. Fire-engine reds and sun-kissed yellows and burnt auburns and gleaming greens make up the rainbow of Fall. This year I did better than a box seat;  I got up and danced in the aisles.

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While New York City is known for its impressive skyline and bustling streets, I always felt that Central Park provided a refreshing view of the city’s beauty. In turn, I attempted to highlight nature’s aesthetic power in my collection of photographs, called “Hidden Treasure.” At first, I thought I might try to show how equally appealing the skyscrapers and the trees were. In the photograph below, for example, both the city and nature seem to share the spotlight.

However, I realized that this was not the type of image or idea that I wanted to portray. Instead, I wanted to recreate the feeling that I get when I am in Central Park. I noticed that in this particular park, the vibrant greens of the spring and summer trees and the iridescent leaves of the fall make the view of the city more enchanting. At times, I even feel that nature’s beauty is so overwhelming that it outshines the impressive glistening skyline. In several of my photographs, the large trees and their leaves cover a great deal of the buildings. In this sense, my title, “hidden treasure” refers to the portions and details of the city’s architecture that are not seen in my pictures. At the same time, my collection’s name also refers nature’s presence in the city, which is often overlooked by tourists and even New Yorkers.

Once I had decided on this topic, I immediately encountered a major challenge: trying to capture a good quality image. When I first attempted to take pictures with my relatively old phone camera, I was sorely disappointed with the results. I was under the impression that my vision and ideas would compensate for my outdated camera, but the photos I took were not sharp and came out rather dull. During my second and last attempt, however, I borrowed my sister’s digital camera, which made all the difference. I realized that although the camera itself is not the only ingredient to a successful photograph, it still plays a significant role in producing a desired image.

When I finally began to snap some photographs, I did not limit myself to two or three shots of the same image. In fact, I took some five or six pictures of each scene to try out slightly different angles and experiment with the lighting and zooming. I knew this would provide me with plenty of options to choose from for the project. I did not, however, anticipate another problem to emerge from this favor I thought I was doing for myself.

As I was evaluating all the images I had gathered from my day’s photography adventure, I was overwhelmed with over one hundred images. While it was easy to eliminate certain photographs from my project, I was often torn between two or three very similar, yet distinct images. Admittedly, it was a headache to stare at the same photographs over and over again before I came to a decision, but I think I was better off having different options, rather than just being stuck to one. Although I would have never thought to try out photography, my endeavors to capture different views of nature in Central Park have allowed me to explore a new artistic outlet.

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Mother Nature Say Hello to New York

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People have different ways of expressing themselves in the form of art; some people paint, others sketch, and in my neighborhood Elmhurst, people do graffiti. I decided to choose the theme of “Make Your Mark” and took photographs of different forms of graffiti in Elmhurst and in Woodside.

To begin with, I made sure my camera was in the setting of “Day Light” since these photographs were taken on sunny days. I put the flash on automatic so my camera would automatically detect when it needed more light or when it did not. On my way to the train station, I passed by the park near my house and came across a tree with the carving: “CARLOS ♥’S MARIE.” The carvings seemed to have been etched out using a carving knife, for every letter was crudely cut and the round letters such as the C and the O were jagged. I specifically chose all of my photographs of graffiti as the center of the picture so it would be the focal point. There are numerous Chinese supermarkets in my neighborhood, all of which do not open until after eight o’clock, and in the span of dusk to opening time, people take advantage of spraying graffiti on the metal gates. I stood at one end of the gate and took an angled shot of the stark white graffiti spray on the dull gray gate.

For this project, I roamed my neighborhood to find the generic graffiti on the walls of apartments and stores, and took shots of as many graffiti art as I could. I was particularly entranced by a form of graffiti art next to a club Nuves on Queens Boulevard, which features a person driving a blue car with smoke trailing behind him, and a large panther crouching down glaring at any bystander that passes by. A few years ago, this graffiti used to be a bland image featuring only dull, dark colors, but now it is enhanced with bright purples, blues, and pinks to attract the attention of passersby. I changed the setting of my camera’s color to “vivid” to capture the vibrant colors of the graffiti.

I recalled passing graffiti numerous when I was driven to Woodside; a particular form of graffiti was always drawn under the overpasses of trains. These graffitis were always painted by “Two Famous Artists,” artists that I have always admired. They always sign their names and label their art, and at this location they named their artwork, *WOODSIDE on the Move.* Over the years, their works have been graffitied over by other people, which made it difficult for me to take quality photographs. They use the entire canvas of the walls under the overpass, which presented difficulties for me to take photographs of the entire canvas. I stood at one end of the photograph of the horizon and the baseball teams and did my best to capture their entire works. There was a photograph I took of a series of colorful boxes which were shadowed by trees; I tried to reduce the shadows from the tree by increasing the exposure, saturation, and the shadow of the photograph using iPhoto, and decreasing the contrast of the picture. The photograph of the flowers were also shadowed by the tree leaves, so I used iPhoto again to increase the saturation and highlights, and decrease the exposure and contrast to capture the colors of the flowers that I saw in person. The ocean painting was extremely large, and I was unable to capture the entire picture even from standing across the street, and one of the beams obstructed my view of the painting.

Performing this project was extremely enlightening for me because I noticed I overlook the details of the neighborhood I have lived in my entire life. This project helped me be more observant to my surroundings and learn to make use of the myriad settings my camera has to offer and make use of adjustments I can do with iPhoto.

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