Category — Street Photography Artist Statements

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As a New Yorker, my typical day starts with an obnoxiously loud alarm. I wave my heavy arms to spot and turn it off without an attempt to open my eyes. I get out of my bed, take a quick shower, and finally check the time. I realize that I have a little more time to fetch a bagel from a café nearby my school. My mind gets busy. I dress myself up in whatever comes into my mind from the closet. I put on my shoes and stuff everything I see on the desk into my school bag. During those thirty minutes, I never stop to look back or think what I am doing. Officially, my unstoppable day as a New Yorker begins as I am merged into the street filled with other hundreds of New Yorkers who open their days just like I do.

For some reason, we, the New Yorkers, are living a day that is broken down into seconds. We do not hesitate to cross the street illegally, even in front of the cops who are staring at us, if we can save five more seconds of our day. Just to save five seconds to be in class earlier, ten more seconds to meet my friends, and thirty more seconds to get out early from school, or to do whatever else, I run all day long. Obviously, I’m not alone in following this draining pattern of life. New Yorkers do not bother themselves to see each other on the street and make eye contact. They do not have enough time to say “Hello” or “Good morning” to some strangers on the street with a smile. Simply, we do not stop.

When I first was assigned to do the Street photography project from IDC class, I wanted to find something philosophical through my camera lens. For a long time, that moment of inspiration did not come to me. One day, I was waiting for a street sign to change at Times Square. My mind went entirely blank from daydreaming, and I did not realize that the sign has changed. When I finally retrieved my consciousness, I was in the middle of a giant flow of New Yorkers. Suddenly, this odd feeling touched my mind.  Why do we never pause and see what other people are doing? Why are we always so busy and full of ourselves? I decided to capture the moments when New Yorkers are “forced” to stop in their days. I went around the city capturing people waiting for their buses at the bus stops or for crossing signs to change, and empty stores filled with darkness. Also, I took photos of New Yorkers busying themselves to surpass others.

In order to depict the “crazy business” of the city life, I decided to go to take photos at Times Square. It was an excellent choice, since that was the busiest and the most crowded place in Manhattan. I didn’t have any trouble spotting interesting subjects for my photography. However, the biggest challenge came from the technical limitation of my camera. I used a plain digital camera, which automatically did the focusing for me. Oftentimes, it wouldn’t let me adjust the focus for the angle that I wanted. It automatically cleared out the parts that I wanted it to make blurry. Otherwise, I played around with the shutter speed and light exposure values to have a dreamy, yet dynamic atmosphere in my photos. I decided to take photos at night so that I could play around with the light. I was generally satisfied with the photos, but some of the color schemes turned out to be little darker than what I expected.

The most interesting part of my project was that I was able to live different from the crowd for those short moments. I stopped when everyone moved around. I moved when everyone stopped. Through my lens, I could find hidden meanings of so many little things that we disregard each day. It was the significance of recovering our composure in our busy lives. In order to keep ourselves conscious of changes, we should be conscious of our surroundings first. This is the new definition of the city life that I could derive from my photography project.

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Sometimes, we get lost in the flurry of life. Things are born, things happen in between, and then things are gone. But how often is this all thought about as a whole? People either dwell on the past, enjoy the present, or plan relentlessly for the future. In my street photography project, I attempted to chronicle life cycles with a universal approach: noticing all parts of life working together as time passes us by.

At first, my perspective absorbed only architecture—new construction, decaying buildings—and I began to see the sheer contrast in the design of New York City itself. Writer and composer Stephen Christian wrote of decaying buildings as “The orphaned anythings,” a troop of disregarded beings taking up space and watching time pass by without so much as an appreciative glance—but I made a point of looking for the ghosts of fervor in cracking walls and chipping paint. Sometimes, I was able to see these “orphaned anythings” so close to the newer, shiny glass and metal buildings that they were touching corner bricks, narrating the stories of technological advancement and architectural preservation–but then, I started to look at the bigger picture in an even bigger way: I began to look at the cycles of human life and activity.

Never before had I noticed such a beautiful melding of youth and age on these city streets, side-by-side going about various businesses without so much as a second glance. What seemed most intriguing, though, was how similar the facial expressions of all of these people could be. Nearly identical instances of joy, sorrow, curiosity, and pain could be seen on the faces of these people that I’d never even seen before, these people that I will likely never see again—much less learn their names, the reasons for their expressions. My favorite picture out of my twelve is “Old Man Enjoying the Sun:” as I crossed Allen Street on my daily walk home from class, I watched as a man closed his eyes and stopped for a brief moment, gratefully taking in the Sun’s last few rays as the wind picked up. I fumbled desperately for my camera, at first not even thinking that a shot of this man would work so well for my street photography project, and I snapped a quick shot over my shoulder as he turned and went on with his life up First Avenue. When I looked down at my camera to see if I had actually gotten the shot (after enduring a long list of failed “inconspicuous-angles”), I paused in shock: even after the moment had passed, this man had a look of hope on his face that was unmistakable. Looking back as he walked slowly uptown, I saw that frozen expression in my mind’s eye on the faces of two children skipping under a father’s arms to class that very morning, on the face of the man that washes the same section of sidewalk every morning on Third Avenue, on the faces of a soon-to-be-known band’s youngest techies running back and forth with amps and cases too big for them at The Bowery Electric. It was at this very moment that I noticed how powerful these life cycles are—especially as they work side-by-side to produce the remarkably full atmosphere of New York City.

As I walked slowly home in a chilling wind only offset by the warmth of shop entrances, I endeavored to capture these life cycles side-by-side in the same pictures, finding decay over growth, growth after decay. It started off with fences and plants, graffiti with traffic cones,

But then the camera became more than just a simple lens: it became a small avenue into the passing of time—and how though nothing may escape it in the end, we find ourselves in a beautiful world of conglomerate means towards that very end, an end that will never see the life cycles of New York City—or any place for that matter—reach it as a whole.

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I love biking, though I rarely get to do it in New York City. I spend my summers at my grandfather’s house in the countryside and I bike everywhere during those months, from my friend’s house to the nearest food store, which lies miles away. The feel of the wind on your face and the different sights and smells that you experience cannot be felt anywhere but on a bike. In addition to being enjoyable, biking is also a great way to stay fit; a much more stimulating form of exercise than a treadmill or a stationary bike.
 
Though I have my own bike here in New York, I never use it. I do not feel safe pedaling through the streets on my tiny bike, among reckless drivers in oversized SUVs. On top of this, my dad has many alarming stories of all the injuries he and his friends have sustained while biking in the city. Despite the apparent danger of biking, I have noticed that it has been growing more and more popular in New York over the past few years. Biking is no longer just limited to Central Park and deliverymen and this is what I wanted to capture in my photos.
 
There has been much talk over the past few years of building more bike paths in New York City. The goal is to have them extend all the way throughout Manhattan. There have been efforts in NYC lately to emphasize transportation via bicycle rather than car as part of the budding “green” movement. Lower Manhattan especially seems to have been affected by this cause. When I was taking photos there I noticed that the streets were full of chained up bikes. There were many young people biking on the new paths, schoolbags on their backs. Biking is becoming a “hip” thing now, which means a lot of support from enthusiastic youths in the current efforts for a green revolution.
 
One major issue for me in this project was taking pictures of people on their bikes. I felt very awkward doing this and would therefore jerk away my camera too quickly when snapping pictures of people in order to avoid being seen by them. This resulted in many blurry shots. I definitely missed out on several good pictures due to my hesitation.
 
Initially I did not edit my photos in any way. However I thought the colors in the pictures were very dull and I enhanced them using iPhoto. This did not really alter the pictures too much, it just made some of them lighter and brought out the greens in the park pictures.
 
As I mentioned before, I started out in lower Manhattan taking pictures of people actually using their bikes as a means of transportation. This contrasted with the Central Park photos, where people bike for pleasure or for exercise. I think that I captured a fairly wide range of images. However, I regret my reluctance to photograph people as this was the main element I want to convey in this project: the relationship of New Yorkers to their bicycles.
 
 
 
 

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Because I use film rather than digital photography, and because I am lazy, it often takes me a very long time to schlep myself to the drugstore so that I can develop my film and actually see the photos I take. Although it is somewhat annoying that I cannot just plug my camera into my computer and see the photos instantly, this is also one of the reasons why I love film photography. Each photograph is a surprise, the rebirth of a forgotten memory.

I had originally planned on doing my street photography project on the interesting buildings, people, and events I pass on my walk to work. I snapped over sixty exposures while I dawdled down the sidewalk. When I developed all the film I had accumulated since August, however, I found those photographs did not really have any substance or presence for me. I probably thought too much about the image, trying to imagine what would look most aesthetically pleasing for my assignment. Because of this, the photographs came out with a total lack of authenticity. They had no feelings or emotions put into them.

The photographs that seemed most genuine, and also held the fondest memories, were those I had taken during my visit to Japantown’s Soul Food Festival in September. Previously known as the NYC Japan Street Fair, this festival displayed a huge array of Japanese food, art, and traditional wares. Looking at my photographs, I remember the positive energy that resonated through those two closed off blocks of Lexington Avenue. There was a large sense of unity and pride in the air that I could feel as I snapped each photograph.

Japan is a country that prides itself on its culture; its tradition; its history. Some people may be turned off by the somewhat nationalistic opinions that Japanese people seem to hold, but I am intensely drawn to it. Growing up with hardly any cultural traditions or values taught to me, I am incredibly fascinated by the deepness in which Japanese people pride themselves on the values of their society, even while they are not living in Japan. While Western society usually promotes individuality, Japanese society is based highly on collectivism. Many people do not find collectivism appealing. They believe it stunts personal growth. I found myself, however, filled with admiration for the all-encompassing unity that surrounded the street fair.

The pride that Japanese people take in their culture, and their desire to share it with those who will listen, is what I feel my photographs have captured. At the time I took them, I was simply trying to capture scenes that appealed to me. I realized only after looking at them almost two months later, that the scenes were appealing because of the feelings of my subjects. Everyone always happily agreed to my request for a photograph; I thought nothing of it at the time. I feel now, however, that maybe the reason they were so willing, and the reason the photographs came out so well, was because of my subjects’ strong desire to show how proud they are of their country and culture, and their desire to send that message through my lens.

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It’s easy to mindlessly walk through the city without looking a single person in the eye. It’s easy to glide through the streets as they blur by you in a monotonous gray tone. It’s easy to not care a single drop where you are as long as you get where you’re going. But lately, I have found it all so difficult. The weather has gotten reasonably colder, the breeze a little brisker, the sun weaker by the second. And the leaves on the trees have been changing. Yes, I said trees – in New York, too.

For the past month, I have spent everyday passing by a beautiful park that screams of a photo-op on my way to rehearsals at Baruch. One day, I brought my camera along with me so the scenery would finally stop yelling at me. Ever since, I’ve found beautiful scenery in the strangest of places.

When people think of New York, they don’t think of maple trees and grass. They think of the cement scenery, the brick backdrop of grim, overbearing buildings. It’s not easy to stop and smell the roses, especially if you can’t even find them behind the skyscrapers.

But if you keep an eye out, they are everywhere. Pots of flowers litter the pedestrian plaza on Broadway; scant little trees brave their way onto every street, squished between No Parking signs and bus stops; and before you know it, you’re not in the concrete jungle anymore. You’re in an urban forest.

The pictures taken were many and far between, but it is hard to catch the melancholy attached to these beautiful, lonely trees. First, I dabbled with the idea of documenting the life of one simple tree on Lexington Avenue. He quietly looked on as countless passersby and taxis whizzed past him, not giving him a second glance. I situated myself in a doorway of the building directly across, and stood by as I watched what he got to watch every day.

But then I took another look around, and realized that there were more trees that wanted their limelight as well, and it would be selfish to not give them their fifteen minutes of fame.

Each one felt like a ghost of The Giving Tree, saddened by its uselessness as it stayed put while the surroundings paid no notice. But each tree was different, and had a different view of the city, and its own painfully lonely story to tell. But in their misery blossoms a tragic beauty all in its own. Although they long for attention, they still have a regal presence that cannot be denied.

The misplacement of all these creatures brings an interesting light to the contrast of their environment, and how they adapt. Or rather, how they cannot adapt. On none of these city streets I roam do I see a fully-bloomed, growing, healthy tree. More often than not, I see twiggy, lanky, poor little trees that are fighting their best to grow.

So, I believe it is their time to shine. These lost souls have been ignored long enough, and have long paid their dues. They have seen more of the city than anyone ever will.

I have split the collection in two parts: the first, of many trees and scenes of foliage found across the city; and second, of the loneliest tree of them all.

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I found deciding upon a theme to be difficult. Both the canvass and inspiration for the project is New York City, arguably the most multifaceted and diverse place in the world. I couldn’t just pick a New York theme; instead I decided to take a more artistic route. I like playing with the emotions that various color palettes generate. A happy face can seem empty if the tone is pale while an inexpressive face can appear vivacious given warm shades and depth of color. Setting out to photograph that which I saw, I aimed to photograph familiar objects and scenes, and make them more interesting by polarizing colors, so to speak. Half of the photos, having been tweaked and edited (although never cropped) should feel cold, half should feel warm.

The setting for my album ranged from uptown to downtown, east side to west. Most of the photos come from the general vicinity of Grand Street Station and the 96^th Street Station. I did not set out with my camera and a goal, but I finished with ninety-two photos and an idea. I managed to capture a lot of photos that I liked; the trouble was a general blandness in image tone. I quickly came to recognize that in order for others to appreciate the photographs, I would have to doctor the images to elicit certain responses. At the same time however, I wasn’t interested in extreme cropping, cutting and pasting etc. I just wanted to brighten, darken, define and focus the pictures in a more thought provoking manner. In other instances I like working with grayscale but these photos seemed to require bright dashes or thin sprinklings of color.

Most of the subjects of my photos are the things we pass each day, either blindly or uninterestedly.  Many of these objects and subjects seem to have sort of mysterious back-stories, and I tried to make the photos more artistic in a sense, in an attempt to emphasize this. Main ingredients of various shots include a faded fallout shelter sign, an abandoned construction worker’s hat, a shoe hanging over a street lamp and an American flag.

I hope viewers can immediately sense the warmth or darkness I’m attempting to portray in each individual photograph. I played with tools that I felt would maintain the honesty in each picture but advance the intrigue. In this day and age, a photograph can certainly be classified as fictional or nonfictional, one can literally create a highly realistic image out of nothing. I didn’t want to sit in the gray area here, my pictures are true, enhanced, images.

The final thought I want viewers left with is a sort of obligation to make double takes when passing the things one sees all the time. It’s easy to ignore scribbles on a wall or abandoned personal artifacts but these things are interesting, and unique. I hope my play on a handful of ignored elements of New York City inspires people to slow down once in a while, and appreciate the remarkable contrasts between a neon sign and a dark street or how depressing a corny, worn-out bumper sticker can be. My photos are things that you’ve seen before, but presented in a new light.

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In a city of approximately 1,537,195, we see so many faces that we rarely stop to look at or think about a single one. Yet faces are so often represented on city walls, street corners, inside subway stations, on storefronts. I thought that the representation of faces in the city was an interesting topic to choose for street photography, because of how they are manipulated, depicted, tampered with, and how even very abstract pictures have a familiarity about them that lets us know a face is there. I chose to order the photos from most objective to the most abstract.

The first three faces are pretty clear and realistic, but they are partially covered. The first is a photo of a sticker of Kim Kardashian place on top of an advertisement for Camel Cigarettes. Though I initially thought this was the most straightforward of the images, but upon further research I found that it displays a very subtle political message. Her cheek says NOH8, which I found out was a group of celebrities’ protest against the passing of Prop 8 in California, banning gay marriages. The second photo is a cardboard cutout of a man representing the New York Lottery and holding a sign over the bottom half of his face announcing the amount that is up for grabs this week. I found that when I cropped the picture to show only his face, he looks silly in a way. The third photo is an advertisement for the movie “Burlesque” in which Cher stars, but a simple dripping line of black paint over her eyes made it very disturbing to me.

The next next two are faces that have been photographed but look odd to the viewer because of photo editing. The fourth is a sticker advertising the band Naked Highway’s new album. The pink background contrasts with the black and white floating head, and how his mohawk and tongue sticking out makes him look like a drawing. The fifth picture is a poster of Katie Holmes, but the photo has been edited to look cartoonish and she was given the face paint of the Joker in Batman. I’m not sure of the meaning behind it but it has quite an eerie feel.

The next four photos are all cartoonish faces that are very unrealistic. The sixth picture I initially liked because it is an outline of a man’s face who is holding a tea cup that also has a face. I see this sticker often and I found out that it the “Where’s Cloud?” movement started when a man won a creativity contest and $1000 earlier this year that he used to travel across America and put these stickers everywhere. The seventh picture is of a stick figure that I found on a wall in Chinatown. It seems simple but also unique because of the way it is drawn: the mouth seems to be a half smile and half frown, but the halves are not in the middle and instead are on opposite sides of the face. The eighth picture is a cheerful little fellow with an oddly large mouth. The creator Dint Wooer says “he’s a goofy face that people like, he doesn’t mean anything.” The ninth photo is an abstract landscape with the sun shining on an otherwise dull town, with a simple but elegant face.

The final three photos are the most abstract and interesting to me. The tenth photo in my project is of a Mamma Mia advertisement in a train station that has been torn off but left an imprint of the coloring and part of the star’s face. My eleventh photo is of a face that seems accidental; it is a sticker of a man with a suit and no head, and another sticker of an O strategically placed on it’s neck, behind the O is the remains of a colorful sticker that has been mostly ripped away. This photo is different because it still looks like a face to me although it has no facial features. Finally, my last photo is of a smiley face that I found in a small crevice of a building in Brooklyn, I thought it was nice to conclude with because even though it is the least detailed, it means that someone stopped to put a smile there where it will always be seen.

I found that the trouble with executing my project was not in finding the faces on the street, but that there were an overwhelming amount that I could not choose which to photograph and which 12 fit together cohesively. All I had to do to get the photos for this project was take a walk through the city streets but pay extra close attention to the walls.

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Growing up in Queens, I was an avid fan of Spiderman.  I would often dream of slinging from skyscraper to skyscraper, and swooping down Manhattan streets to save the day.  Although, I will never be able to do this, through photography, I can always capture the views of the city that Spiderman would probably see a lot of if only he existed.  In this gallery, I display different views of the city, including ground level, aerial, and distanced views, in order to display the immense size and the speed of New York City.

“Karnveer! Pay attention to the directions, and stop taking pictures.  We just missed another turn because of you” Brandon yelled frantically. Brandon, Tracy and I were driving to the Metropolitan Opera to watch Rigoletto, and I was the GPS system (reading the directions).  Both Tracy and Brandon were worried about being late, while I was calmly taking pictures of everything that caught my attention.  My deviation from reading the directions had caused us to miss a turn, but it was worth it, because we eventually made it to the Metropolitan Opera on time, and I got my photos.  These photos were taken in the night, and were taken from ground level.  One of my favorite photos taken on our journey was of the twin buildings of the Time Warner Center. I thought the photo was very unique due to the contrast between the vibrant red lights from the cars, and the blue and white lights coming from the buildings above.  Another one of these photos that I really liked was “Blurred City”, because I took it when the car was moving fast, and due to the speed, the lighting came out fuzzy; it captures the theme of speed that exists in New York City life.

If you want to feel like you are on top of the world, nothing will provide you a better feeling of this than looking down from a New York City skyscraper.  In July and August, through a summer program I was in, I was able to access some very high vantage points at some of the biggest buildings in New York including the Sony Tower, and the law offices of Winston and Strawn at the Met Life Building. At these incredible heights, the city appeared to be toy-like. When I looked out of the windows at these buildings, especially at the Sony Tower, I was amazed by the seemingly infinite amount of buildings lined up one after the other.  While at the Winston and Strawn office, I was awestruck when I looked down at the speed of New York City; cars and people raced up and down the city streets and showed no signs of stopping; with my photos, I tried to slow it down.

Some of my favorite photos of New York City are actually from outside of the city. The “Sunset from Queens” photo was taken from the Van Wyck Expressway; in the backdrop of this photo, you can see the New York skyline in a reverse fashion.  Here, these larger than life buildings appear microscopic.  Although the photo is taken from a great distance, the skyscrapers are still visible, showing their tremendous sizes.  To take this photo, I had to pull down the window, and hold out my phone firmly, making sure I didn’t drop it.  My dad constantly reminded me that if I dropped it, he wasn’t going to pay for a new one, so I was definitely under pressure.  The other photo that I took from outside of the city was the “The Empire State Building from the Queensboro Bridge”.  This photo appears blurry, because it was one I took while we were heading away from the city, and I had to position myself in an awkward position to take it.  These two photos were much different from the other ones I took, because they look at the city from the outside.

With it’s heaven reaching skyscrapers, and rocket fast life style, New York City can’t possibly be captured in a few photos.  But that hasn’t stopped me from trying.  Over the past six months I’ve really been exposed to New York City, and wherever I’ve gone, I’ve snapped photos of everything I’ve seen.  In this album, I’ve included photos that capture the size and speed of New York City.

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The theme for my street photography project was unplanned for the most part. I started out by carrying my digital camera around with me whenever I went out and basically just took pictures of anything I thought was worth taking a picture of. I didn’t have an idea in mind, but simply capturing some images was the first part. When I found out that our topic didn’t need to be constricted to just city streets, more ideas came to me. My mom, who takes pictures of anyone and anything, gave me tips on how to take pictures by dividing the image into sections before taking a photo. So this year when I went to Alaska for a summer trip, I used those techniques to take good photographs. Since I knew I had good photographs from Alaska and good photographs from the city, I decided to combine the two topics into one.

Brooklyn is my home. I was born and raised here and love it. There’s no place I’d rather live than in New York. But for the past two years I’ve gone to Alaska on a wilderness trip and I have been the leader of the trip, working with the project coordinator/founder to organize everything. Over this time, I have grown to love the wilderness. Being in the city all the time, I love being able to get away from it all with the beautiful views and experiences nature has to offer. From these experiences, I now want to own a summer home in Alaska in the future and have already started talking to the project founder about taking over his house in Alaska when he decides to sell it. I’ve adapted so well to the culture change and I feel like Alaska is a home to me because of my comfort level there. With all that being said, this was the inspiration behind my joint topic. Brooklyn IS my home but Alaska gives me a homely feeling. I wanted to join these two places to show who I am and the environment I am surrounded by.

New York is known for its constant movement and liveliness. Alaska is known for its scenic views and snowy mountains. You would think that taking photographs of views would be easier in the wilderness because all it is is nature, no real liveliness. But that wasn’t the case for me. I had most of my trouble taking the photographs in Alaska. One image that was especially difficult to capture was the image titled, “Eagle at Ease.” Being on the water and moving, it was hard to get close to the eagle without startling it. I had to be very silent while taking my camera out and then I had to focus the camera on the eagle while still maintaining the background shot. It took me a few tries before I was finally able to capture the image successfully.

Aside from the challenging or un-challenging aspects of taking these photographs, I also had some luck. For example, the image titled, “The Sky is Falling” was simply fortunate timing for me. After sleeping on a mountain, I woke up to clouds and fog covering over the mountain tops that were next to us. I basically stumbled upon it. There was nothing difficult about it, just luck. Another lucky photograph I captured was “The Speed of Light.” I took this photo while trying to capture any images I could of street photography around my neighborhood before I had a set topic. I was walking around taking pictures of cars, street signs, stores, etc. While taking a picture of traffic moving along my street, a taxi cab happened to have drove past my camera as I was shooting the picture. What came out was a stream of light that I thought worked well and looked good. To me, it captures the idea that the city is constantly moving at a pace we can’t keep up with, and that the lights of the city holds the power that dominates the city, as shown in my photograph, “Night Light from Brooklyn.” At night time, lights from all over (cars, buildings, street lights) fill the city with color and energy, which make the city what it is.

The two different focuses in my street photography project are completely different yet they each possess their own significance and splendor. These photographs aren’t just pictures to me. They hold meaning too…which may be why I decided on these certain photos to display.

I did not use any photo shop for any of the photos because I tried to keep the images just as they were when I shot them and didn’t want to alter their appearance.

The city is constantly growing with buildings being erected left and right and ever more people moving in. It seems that nature plays little to no part in the city’s growth, always laying under the shadows of the large sky scrapers. However, what seems to be true does not always mean that it is true. In fact mother nature is making a come back with quite the vengeance. If we walk around the city and look closely at man made structures, we witness natures battle. The trees cover up buildings and bridges to make a statement that nature is the focal point. But in the end a compromise is possible, mother nature and the big apple can work together to make a beautiful statement.

The photos I took represent a long struggle between the green and the grey that dwells in New York City. First we look at the night life of the city. It most certainly seems that the city is running rampant creating a morning without the sun. The general audience does not seen any signs of trees or grass, not even a weed can survive in such a harsh environment. Then we jump to scenes of nature and realize that there is a hidden beauty in plants. These flowers to many people’s surprises are located in various locations throughout the city, however there beauty is often ignored. The last couple of photographs depicts a gradual take over by nature. We see how there is some leaves encroaching on the right side of the photograph, trying to make its appearance. As the photos progress we see more and more of nature covering up the city’s creations. However, it is not right to just believe that nature will completely take over the city. Ultimately a compromise between nature and the city create the most beautiful scenes known to man. The final photograph depicts a collaboration between the great city itself and the sun rising in the background, and it creates a magnificent sight that all the rest of the photos lacked.

Color is of a necessity in all the photos I took. The kind of colors I used and lack of color reveals the moment. The night time shots of Times Square truly reveals the sheer power that New York City is known for, the ability to create an artificial day time as if man was mocking nature. The close up shots of the flowers gives us a close sight at the petals and the intricacy of nature. There is a city within the flowers and we see the flowers for its true beauty. The rest of the photos show how leaves are slowly taking back the land and it was necessary to slowly show a progression, so the audience could witness the gradual take over. Once again color is important to give life to the moments captured. The final scene was the most epic scene of all the photos. Not only did it take a great amount of effort waking up early enough to capture the moment but it shows that when two things come together it creates something significant. I used photoshop minimally create blur effects in some photos and clear up the photographs, but largely the photos were left intact.