New York
Black and White
On 08, Jun 2009 | 9 Comments | In New York | By MR
Harlem has a lot of contrasts - the history of this area is very rich with art and culture, but at one point was also marred by high crime and drugs. There are very expensive houses, and at the same time, homeless men (see previous picture) living on the streets.... this was another contrast I saw - the person who lives in the apartment above obviously cares about how they live, and have taken the time to decorate their window, while the person that decided to deface the shop door downstairs didn't care too much...
On this note, my series on Harlem ends. The discussion about capturing the 'soul' of a city started in Ilan Bresler's blog post has started to catch on, and its nice to see other people weigh in with their opinion. I had originally commented about the approach to take on a series that I learned in class, but as you can see on this blog (http://kenrathke.shutterchance.com), there are other methods. Ken has attempted to picture what the 'soul' of Chicago is by taking pictures of things he feels is the soul of the city, or what the city means to him. I think this is a great approach, because unlike people, I think cities can have different sides to them - as in more than one 'soul'. So it would be nice to see how Chicago looks to Ken, as opposed to someone else, or what the general tourist books describe as to what the soul of Chicago should be and thereby maybe showing Chicago as it has not been seen by anyone else... [....]
Country
On 03, Jun 2009 | 20 Comments | In New York | By MR
This is Country (street name), the man in this picure - The Bat Cave, one of many that live there. I met him during my walk in Harlem last week and he told me all about the history of the Bat Cave. He mentioned that the Bat Cave is one of the most coveted shooting locations for hollywood, and that he is the one to manage the place when the likes of Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage and other famous hollywood actors and producers want to shoot their movies here. He also questioned me aggresively what I would be doing with the pictures, and after I mentioned that I'm really not a professional photographer and I don't plan on selling the pictures anywhere, he seemed to be more at ease. He also told me about another photographer who was doing a full fledged photojournalism piece about them (Andrea Star Reese) and the Bat Cave. He was really nice, and invited me to come back soon... hopefully I will make it back....[....]
The Bat Cave
On 01, Jun 2009 | 11 Comments | In New York | By MR
I was walking under a bridge in Harlem, when I came across this small enclave, which looked interesting, so I crossed the street and started taking pictures. I saw a man sweeping the floor, and I thought odd that this man would be sweeping part of the street as if he was cleaning his own front yard. He saw me and started to speak to me from the other side. I eventually crossed the street and started to talk to him. This is the bat cave, affectionately named by the people who live there. It's a dead end block in Harlem where a bunch of homeless men make their home. He told me a lot of history about it, and how a lot of big hollywood movies are shot and how this was the best place to live in New York City. I don't think he trusted me enough to let me go in the back, but I was told the building has the other face to the river. I know its slightly naive, but I still find myself a little bit surprised to find homeless people in one of the most (if not THE most) powerful and rich country in the world...[....]
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