In taking my photo for Snapshot Day, I had a difficult time thinking of what would best suit the tone of my everyday life. It had to be a shot I saw often, yet something that fully represented how I saw the city. I entitled my photo “Side by Side.” One of my favorite places to spend time when I’m sick of studying is down by the water on FDR Drive at the Waterside Apartments where there is a huge sitting area, park and a beautiful view of the water. As I sit here, I often think that the city is such a diverse place in that everyone and everything seems to coexist simultaneously; city and island; water and land; bridge, tunnel and buildings; west and east; uptown and downtown. The city has its own dichotomy and its own rhythm. To capture only one of these elements is to betray my experience in the city; I live downtown but I go to school uptown. I work on the East side, yet I attend arts performances on the West. The city is far from a place of isolation or a place where you get stuck in a bubble. More or less, I’ve been everywhere, exhausting my unlimited MetroCard. This snapshot, to me, was an encapsulation of my life in the city as well as the true history of a city like New York, where cultures blend together and where many lives coexist.

In taking this photo I kept the Rule of Thirds in mind; the picture is divided into water, land, and sky to represent the elements that all play an equal part in the city’s habitat. I also kept the lighting in mind; one of the most important elements of my photograph was the clouds–they seemed to be looming dark and grey over the city and lightening up to white, fluffy clouds towards the water. This changing climate, as well as the cloud streak that curves downward, seemed to run parallel to the slope of the buildings into the bridge. This slope of the buildings draws the eye across the picture from left to right, city to island. The bridge emphasizes how the all the elements of the city are connected into one unifying word: Manhattan.