Cultural Dining on NYC Streets
The theme I choose was cultural dining on New York City streets. When I state “New York City streets” I literally meant the streets, not a restaurant or anything indoors. My photographs illustrate people buying and consuming food sold from street vendors. Additionally, the type of food that was being sold displays the culture of the people living in the area. For instance, the first place I went to was Washington Heights, where there are mostly Latinos. Here I found “majarete” and “habichuelas con dulce” two Latin dessert dishes, which I love. I also found empanadas and “quips” two typical Latin foods. This trend continued as I traveled to Sunset Park and Chinatown. Sunset Park is mainly populated with Mexicans. Thus, you encounter Mexican foods and dishes. A Mexican street vendor in Sunset Park will sell corn on a stick or Shish Kabob, although Shish Kabob is not truly Mexican. They also sell cups of “Choco” or a couple of hot Tamales, two common Mexican foods. In Chinatown I encountered Americanized Chinese food, such as vegetable lo mien, egg rolls, and pork or beef on a stick. Yet, I also found some weird Chinese food that I could not identify such as rice noodles and fish balls. In all, one can see that the food a vendor sells depends on the people he is selling to. I found traveling around New York City and photographing different food vendors as a thrilling and exciting experience.
Washington Heights
Appetizer
Entree
Dessert
The reason I considered photographing the food vendors thrilling and exciting was that they were located in sketchy areas. Chinatown was fine because there were a lot of tourist and Chinese people were not intimidating. They seemed very docile and placid. Therefore, they really did not mind me taking photos of them, or perhaps it was that they did not know English so they could not argue with me. Either way the Chinatown aspect of the project was easy to complete. However, taking photographs in Washington Heights and Sunset Park was not an easy task. I do not always feel safe in Washington Heights when I am minding my own business and not bothering anyone. Having to walk around and take photographs of Dominicans and Puerto Ricans made me feel uncomfortable at times. Many of the people I photographed got offended and would start arguing with me. Luckily, I know Spanish so I was able to calm them down or just argue back. Similarly, taking photos in Sunset Park was challenging. The Mexicans were not as critical as the Dominicans or Puerto Ricans, but a few did complain. Therefore, taking photographs in Washington Heights and Sunset Park was thrilling and exciting, because of the confrontations, and was also my biggest challenge, because it meant dealing with vendors that got offended.
A second challenge I faced was obtaining a theme for the street photography project. I could not figure out what to photograph. I did not want to do something common, but rather something original. It was difficult, I spent days thinking about possible themes, like photographing buildings or poor people, but those just were not motivating enough and too common. Then, I went to Washington Heights to visit a friend and noticed all of the vendors, especially the food vendors. Consequently, I decided to make my theme revolve around food vendors, focusing on the type of food they sell and where they sell it. However, I did not want to present a series of food vendor photographs, because it would be boring, so I had to think of a way to present the photographs. Once I had taken all of my photographs in Washington Heights I noticed that I could group them into sweet and non-sweet foods. This division allowed me to realize that I could divide the non-sweet food into appetizers and entrees. Thus, I was able to divide the food sold by the vendors into a three-course meal, with an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. Therefore, when I went to Sunset Park and Chinatown I photographed food vendors that were selling food that I could couple with one of the three categories. In the end, I obtained the photographs necessary to complete my project.
I cannot say that I was looking forward to doing this project. I thought it would be a waste of time and that I would not learn anything through it. Yet, once I completed the project, I realized that I had learned a lot about New York City. I learned to recognize the type of food a vendor is selling and correlate it to the people he is selling to. I learned about the different cultures and foods sold on the streets of New York City. Most importantly, I enjoyed myself and was not bored as took photographs, mainly because of the Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, and Mexicans I had to deal with. Overall, the street photography project was innovative and luminous, expanding my perspective and knowledge of New York City.