Awakenings

With the anticipation for this project came a clear idea for exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to take a closer look at the natural beauty found right around our school campus. With resources such as Gramercy and Madison Square Parks, there was evidence that there may be more to New York City than just skyscrapers and sidewalks. For many years, I have admired the interaction between architecture and plant life in this area, noting their relationship and how that affects other’s opinions on the city. Now, I got the chance to prove that New York really is alive with nature, not just the buzz of taxicabs, people and the occasional pet dog.

And so it began, the hunt for life in the big city. I initially planned on this project being singularly based on the two main parks in our area, Gramercy and Madison Square. However, it wouldn’t be long before the nature horizon was expanded. As I walked toward Gramercy Park on Lexington Avenue, I for some reason turned to the direction of 22^nd street. But this time, I didn’t focus on the busy car-lined alleyway that it is, or the buildings that flank the sidewalks. This time, I saw something I had never noticed before: the arching branches of trees that line the passageway to 3^rd Avenue. This is when I realized that the project would eventually transform itself into a study of the entire Gramercy area, not just the parks.

Why can’t people just look up once in a while? As I gazed around at the ritzy brownstones that border Gramercy Park itself, I saw what I had seen and loved before: natural beauty interacting with man-made buildings. Why do I use “interacting?” This is because they do interact with each other. There is such a play off of colors in the flowering plants and brightening foliage with the buildings themselves that I asked myself which one was imitating the other? And it goes without saying that the buildings, or should I say homes, of Gramercy are gorgeous in the truest sense of the word. I found myself strolling down Irving Place in no time at all, feasting my eyes on the tree-lined streets perpendicular to this infamous avenue. I saw townhouses of all varieties adorned with plant life. Even at this time of year, flowers still bloomed, and the bright greens could not be darkened by the overcast weather. It was pure luxury.

I left the area shortly thereafter, and moved on to the larger and open-to-the-public Madison Square Park. Here, I found an oasis of trees, bushes and flowers that were juxtaposed to the ominous height of such landmarks like the Credit Suisse building, the Courthouse, the Flat Iron building, and the Met-Life building. Never far to the north is the icon of Manhattan itself, the Empire State building. As I stood there cocooned in the lush greenery of the park, it seemed as if the buildings were growing like trees from the outskirts of the area. And, as different as they are, bricks and trees were in seamless harmony. There were some beautiful surprises in the park. The first was this beautiful purple flower that I likened to a firework. It was in the same field of vision as an apartment building on the next block over. The second jewel was a grouping of mums around a water fountain that was close to the 23^rd street side of the park. It wasn’t the beauty of the plant or the fountain that intrigued me, but the way that if you look at a particular flower bush, you can see the Empire State building in the background. It was the small things like these that made the experience of doing this project so good.

However, I was not satisfied. No, what I wanted was something different, and something I had to be patient for. What I wanted was night. I waited until after the sunset for a few pictures. What I got was awesome photos of nature and architecture blending together. Under the cover of darkness, just outlines are truly visible. Upon viewing this, I asked myself where is the line between each of these subjects? Although you know from looking at the pictures what a building is from what a tree is, you get a feeling that night is the equalizer in our environment. Everything blends. Nothing is boring.

But, this project was not without its challenges. The first of which was the most immediately noticeable: the weather. Although it looked perfectly pleasant, it was not the best weather for taking pictures. What helped was the fact that I was using a borrowed Nikon D50 SLR camera, which worked brilliantly, and the occasional stream of sunlight that brightened up the Manhattan skyline. The camera offered me many settings, which I took advantage of. I had the ability to manually focus my shots, which I used in many cases, and I could adjust the shutter speed and zoom. I have used this camera before, so with a deft control of these settings, beauty emerged from the digital pictures. Other than these problems, the project was rather trouble-free.

This Street Photography Project was both informational and incredible fun. I feel that I proved that nature is not the least bit out of place in New York City. Not even close. What amazes me is that although I focused the project around the area of Gramercy and Baruch College, it was just a microcosm of Manhattan as a whole. This, as I realized, was just the tip of the iceberg that is plant life in the Big Apple. Maybe another photography project of my own is in order. The story may not be finished yet.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 3:32 pm and is filed under