New York: The City that Never Sleeps

New York is an amazing place - a photographer's dream. I had never been there before but Spring Break '08 offered the perfect opportunity to see the city, the way it was meant to be seen: VIP! The Foundation Fellowship (my scholarship) pays for a trip over spring break every year of college. The trip for first years is domestic and the same every year - New York and Washington DC, the nation's financial and political capitals. On the agenda for New York were the Broadway Shows, Spring Awakening and Young Frankenstein, the Met, the NYSE, and meetings with Susan Waltman, the Senior VP of the Greater New York Hospital Association, and a panel with FF Alum working in Finance in New York - all in 4 days. You've all heard the phrase, "New York is the city that never sleeps," a condition that I now fully understand. We did so much and slept so little (less than 12 hours in 4 nights) but I'll spare you the details and just start into the photos.

Manhattan:

Manhattan was actually one of the my least favorite areas of New York. It was incredible to walk through the city and see the hustle and bustle firsthand, but it lacked the sort of vibe I got from some of the other neighborhoods I visited, like Harlem and Brooklyn. You would think that it would offer a myriad of subjects for my photography but I just didn't see as many interesting things in Manhattan. I think the media and New York's status as a tourist mecca ruined it for me. Despite never having been there, I already knew what time square looked like, and consequentially I felt like I was just taking pictures of postcards, each time I flipped on my camera and began to look through the lens.

Harlem

Harlem rocked. I wasn't really sure what to expect but it was one of the most eclectic and interesting of the places I saw, from the people to the buildings, and even the stores. You get a certain feeling walking through the streets, that is somewhat hard to describe. It's very organic, and very real. Still I felt somewhat out of place there and my camera attracted the attention of just about everyone I passed.

Brooklyn:

Ok so none of these photos were taken from the heart of Brooklyn, rather from the bridge. If there is anything that I regret from my time in New York, it would have been that I didn't get enough time to spend there. The bottom picture shows Sheena and I from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Bronx

I felt like the Bronx was the craziest place I went to in New York. It may have been the only place I felt somewhat uneasy walking around (it was getting dark). Still the community there was awesome. I was there with Alex Squires, and we heard a string of hilarious conversations culminating in what has to be the catch phrase of trip and please excuse the profanity:

"There was two niggas and a bitch!"

That's all we got... Do you want to know the rest of the story? I wouldn't mind finding out myself.

Central Park

Central Park was another one of my favorite things about NYC. One morning we woke up around 5:45 to see the sunrise over Manhattan from the park and a large portion of the photos under this heading were taken then. If I lived in New York, I would wake up at least once a week to see the the sunrise there.

The Subway

I love subways. You see the most interesting people on them, even though I don't always feel comfortable taking pictures. The first picture under this heading is one of the most powerful images I took in New York. This man was one of the most pitiful sad looking people I have ever seen. I paid him a few bucks to take his picture and I think it turned out well for both of us. The last two people are Jere Morehead, the Vice President of Instruction, and Jessica Hunt, the UGA major scholarships coordinator, who led our trip.

Ads/Billboards

Every big city has a lot of amusing advertisements and billboards but I found New York to have a particularily interesting array of posted materials.

Hotel Room Fun

Well, if we didn't sleep in New York, what were the hotel rooms for? Well, all sorts of things is the answer as you can see here.

St. Patricks Cathedral

After seeing so many Cathedrals last year in Germany, I wasn't that excited to see one in New York, but I got some nice shots out of the deal. The last picture wasn't actually taken in the cathedral (I hope that was clear!) but it was right next to it and I liked the picture so there!

The Met

The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) is one of the worlds largest art galleries, featuring over 2 million works of art. As of 2007, the Met measures almost a quarter mile long and occupies more than two million square feet, which is more than 20 times the size of the original 1880 building. Needless to say, we didn't get to all of it, but it was worth the visit, especially, fo free.

The New York Stock Exchange

We were lucky enough to get into the NYSE, the worlds largest stock exchange by dollar volume. After merging with Euronext, the NYSE went electronic in 2007. While more efficient for the brokers, the floor is no longer full of traders screaming and throwing paper. In all honesty, it would have been pretty boring to watch except that I was busy (covertly) trying to take photos.

Audience with Costume Designer, William Ivey Long

Although we spent a good portion of our time focusing on the financial sector, we also made time to see many of the cultural aspects of New York. On our final full day in New York we visited the home and studio of five time Tony Award winning costume designer William Ivey Long. He has designed the costumes for numerous broadway works including Hairspray, Chicago, The Producers, and Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein which we saw during our stay. The beaded caps you see modeled by our lovely Geales Goodwin and myself were used in the producers - do you recognize the scene?