Why can't we all live in NYC?

My impression is that, if it is a university in a town then there is also a pleasant nightlife. Take Paris. It is a students crowding the small restaurants on the Southern Bank that makes it lively and charming by night.
 
I can say with utmost honesty that the town I live in is photographically dead unless you're a DSLR landscape photography reading "amateur photography" and thinking a good picture is one of a dead piece of driftwood on an empty beach at sunset using messed up HDR colors and tones.

Want to move to NYC. Would actually give one of my testicles to do so. One of the best things about the US is that you guys have a plethora of different states that are completely different from each other. In Australia, If I go over the opposite end, it's still pretty much the same.
 
Spoks said:
My impression is that, if it is a university in a town then there is also a pleasant nightlife. Take Paris. It is a students crowding the small restaurants on the Southern Bank that makes it lively and charming by night.
Click to expand...

I was "banned for life" from our local university's apartment village/complex the other night. Reason? I asked a security guard for his name so i could make a formal complaint to his manager regarding his behavior.

Such is the "Sunshine Coast" life.
 
jky said:
The past couple of days I've walked around the downtown area of my hometown (Calgary) and found the lack of life a little frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I have a sentimental attachment to this place, but although the city has over 1 million people, it's still mainly a suburbian (is that a word?) city. The best time to people watch, and take snaps, is around the working hours of the day. As soon as 5pm hits though, everyone flocks back to suburbia....
Many I miss the big apple!
Click to expand...

Come to Regina. Here is where all the actions is at!

You can also try Biggar SK, as the saying goes

3121355494_b0b70c4dfa.jpg
 
I left NYC back in the 1970s during the Beame years. Things were starting to get ugly, and I had spent most of one summer out here ("Somewhere in Middle America") and liked it.

chut said:
I was living in a dodgy neighborhood called Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. It would have been pretty dicey to do street photography then, as muggings and murders were regular occurences at the time. Even cab drivers in Manhattan would refuse to take me home to that neighborhood, for fear of getting robbed.
Click to expand...

I remember the Clinton Hill area quite well. IIRC it was far from the worst. A friend of ours went to St. Joseph College over on Clinton Ave, and we used to go to the Friday mixers over there (I was still in HS at the time). :) I remember walking there, most of the time from the GG, but at least once from Junior's, if you know where that is, and although I would not have done that alone, with a group of kids we were perfectly safe at the time.

I look at Bruce Davidson's photos of New York in the 80s and I am amazed at how daring he was, doing what he did. It was probably akin to being a war photographer.
Click to expand...

I posted the link to Davidson's Subway photos a while back, but here it is again:

http://www.art-dept.com/artists/davidson/portfolio/subway/newportfolio.html

IIRC, much of that was shot on the New Lots line, which served some areas that, yes, resembled a war zone in the 1980s. :( I saw the book at the local library shortly after it was published and I could not help but think that I made the right decision at the time, to leave that is. :(
 
dfoo said:
What a great set... what's the deal with the guy with the gun??
Click to expand...

That one gives me the creepies! :(

I've always wondered about it. Was it staged? Reenactment? Or was it really-truly "f/16 and be there"? If it was real, he has more guts than I can ever imagine -- more guts than brains? Jeesh! He could have very easily been shot! :(
 
NathanJD said:
You think you've got problems? try living in a country that only homes 3 million people. my only consolation is that I live very near the capital city.
Click to expand...

:D Well, that sounds familiar! The place we call Norway is awfully long, but we´re not much more than 4 million either. On top of that; oil wealth has made us both self-sufficient and stupid in a BIG way. :bang:
 
But wait, there's more!

But wait, there's more!

Curiosity got me, and googling a bit got this snippet of an interview with Davidson about just that:

In the New York subway, the robbery picture you see in the book, that was made on the No. 1 train from 72nd Street to Times Square. That picture was made during the week, and the robber knew he had two or three minutes from the express stop between 72nd and Times Square to commit a crime.

Q. This is the much-talked-about photo, on Page 91, with a man in a red jacket holding a gun up to someone's head . . .

A. New York magazine called me, and they were doing a story on a series of subway undercover detectives, who dressed themselves and behaved in certain ways to entice muggers.

And one detective was dressed as a rabbi with a beard, and he wore a gold chain. Of course, rabbis don't wear chains, but the robber probably didn't know that. I volunteered, since I had been mugged previously when I was alone. . . . I volunteered to be a decoy so, I acted in such a way to get mugged. Now, I always had my camera out around my neck when I took pictures because I can't just hide the camera and then approach people. It has to be out there, in the open. I took a subway map out and pretended I was lost.

The robber came into the car, robbed the sleeping rabbi/detective -- took his chain right off his neck -- and came towards me at the end of the car. He said, "Give me that camera!" And just at that moment, I lifted my camera and photographed him. And as I photographed him, [the detective] Billie moved in with the .38 and arrested him, so it was a simultaneous thing. One frame.

Q. So what we're seeing, the gentleman in red is actually a police officer.

A. Yeah, he's an undercover. And you see, he's sitting there in the middle of the train with a boombox and dark glasses in that kind of hip-hop clothing, and the robber [thinks], "Oh, I got a brother. He's going to help me. He's not going to say anything." And that was his fatal error.

The group was disbanded after awhile because the bait was too good. Sometimes the cops looked so good, I was going to rob them myself.

Q. What happened afterward? Are there other images from the incident?

A. He was arrested, and I felt sorry for him. As soon as he robbed me, they took him out and cuffed him. They took him right off the train at 42nd Street.
Click to expand...
 
I brought it up some time ago and it feels right to bring it up again... we should have some sort of foreign exchange program. Forget about swapping cameras... we should be swapping couches :D
 
endustry said:
once you've seen one abandoned farmhouse, you've seen them all.
Click to expand...

Endustry: ...once you've seen one abandoned farmhouse, you've seen them all... ;)

Re: NYC being done to death... I haven't done it (coming from a hobbyist standpoint of course). Seriously though it's just nice that people are around pretty much all hours of the day.
 
Jamie Pillers said:
I'd like to suggest another way of looking at your 'conundrum'. I face a similar situation in my bit of suburbia. I think of it (street photography in a place with a "lack of life", on the surface at least) as a huge challenge worth taking on. For me, the question is "how can I create a powerful photographic representation of "suburbia" and everything that the word suggests?
Click to expand...

... 9-5, m-f, the core is bustling with life. After rush hour, it dies. I've been thinking of taking more photos around the suburbs, but my own personal insecurity gets in the way. I, as the photog, don't feel comfortable taking snaps in these conservative neighborhoods. I notice this when I'm downtown "after hours" as well - my photos change as I don't seem to move in as close compared to the busy lunch hour. I think plenty here can relate when I say that it's easy to disappear in a crowd. It definitely is a challenge (one that I'm slowly learning to have fun with)...
 
capitalK said:
I brought it up some time ago and it feels right to bring it up again... we should have some sort of foreign exchange program. Forget about swapping cameras... we should be swapping couches :D
Click to expand...

... in a sort of similar way...
My past couple trips to Vancouver have been fantastic as there are a couple street photogs that I've gotten together with for a photowalk. During these walks, we often explored areas that did not have many people about... this taught me that things can be found pretty much anywhere (and how I've been missing these interesting parts of the city). The past few times here in Calgary, I've put that into practice & explored further away from the normal noon hour strip that I frequent... it's provided a renewed sense of excitement.
 
I've lived in NYC all my life. You know what you know. You get used to it, or you don't. I know plenty of people who moved here from the "sticks" and love it. I know plenty of people who were born here and hate it. In certain parts of NYC, boroughs included, those who moved here outnumber those that lived here all our lives.

For those that are just visiting, remember, a lot of people do live here and call it home. Some visitors don't realize that and feel free to act in a quite disrespectful manner. What am I saying???

- You respect my life and I'll respect yours.


:)
 
I mean no disrespect when I say this, but I am glad you all don't live here. Just think how boring it would be!
 
jky said:
... 9-5, m-f, the core is bustling with life. After rush hour, it dies. I've been thinking of taking more photos around the suburbs, but my own personal insecurity gets in the way. I, as the photog, don't feel comfortable taking snaps in these conservative neighborhoods. I notice this when I'm downtown "after hours" as well - my photos change as I don't seem to move in as close compared to the busy lunch hour. I think plenty here can relate when I say that it's easy to disappear in a crowd. It definitely is a challenge (one that I'm slowly learning to have fun with)...
Click to expand...

you should see wall street after hours - like a morgue.
 
fdigital said:
I can say with utmost honesty that the town I live in is photographically dead unless you're a DSLR landscape photography reading "amateur photography" and thinking a good picture is one of a dead piece of driftwood on an empty beach at sunset using messed up HDR colors and tones.

Want to move to NYC. Would actually give one of my testicles to do so. One of the best things about the US is that you guys have a plethora of different states that are completely different from each other. In Australia, If I go over the opposite end, it's still pretty much the same.
Click to expand...


As someone who lives on the other side of Australia (in Perth) I can only say that I completely agree with you. Like many other cities mentioned here, the CBD (and many other areas) of Perth becomes a ghost town after 530.

For me, Melbourne is Australia's answer to NYC (I've visited NYC a few times and love it to bits) - there are still things going on well into the evening.

This is a great thread
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom