Tag: nyc

by jad

Until Next Time, Gorgeous

It’s almost September, which means it’s nearly time to put the summer behind me. One or two more hurrahs left for the closest thing we have to an eternal city on this continent. x It’s funny that I still haven’t done any of the most stereotypical things in NYC yet, but this time, I got real close. x It’s also funny how it was only after we got back from NYC that I started watching all these shows about its urban history. We’ve barely scratched the surface of this place, which is why I love it so much. It’s not … Continue reading “Until Next Time, Gorgeous” →

by jad

NYC Kodak Moments

We stumbled on a so-this-city scene when we found these FDNY firefighters training in the middle of the street. One of the older guys was encouraging a younger recruit (“it ain’t easy”), before a dude on a bike and two dogs strapped like babies showed up to chit chat. The very last slide isn’t from this street, but it seemed like it capped off the set nicely. x x x

by jad

St John the Divine

On the morning of my birthday, we went to visit the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine bright and early, so we were two of a handful of people there. I was amused when the very cool and very bored person at the counter asked what the nature of my visit was—this was early in our trip, and I wasn’t yet used to these buildings being seen as tourist traps, plus his question was giving “border control”—and even more amused when he tripped over my reply: prayer. After a beat, he made sure I knew that photography isn’t allowed if … Continue reading “St John the Divine” →

by jad

New York Aura

I’d planned to get an aura photo taken upon my solar return and was pleased to see that @magicjewelrynyc did that sort of thing in a convenient location in Chinatown. Drop-ins welcome too! Alas, the only woo-woo that was to ensue was our circling the block a dozen times in the scorching heat before realizing that the location had disappeared off the face of the earth. Grand rising! We had a good laugh about that and greatly enjoyed the insanity that is Canal Street and its Canal Street bling. We also seemed to stumble upon some police raid that was confiscating merchandise, … Continue reading “New York Aura” →

by jad

Far Away (Ground Zero)

The one place we prioritized once we found a coin locker for our suitcase and sat down for lunch at the station was @nyan_nyanji, the Cat Temple on the outskirts of town. As millennials from the internet, it just felt like that had to be the one religious site of the many religious sites in Kyoto we couldn’t miss, if we could only see one. It would be more than an hour by bus and back, and it did not disappoint. I’ll post a fever dream of a Reel about it shortly. #japanonfilm #streetphotography #nikonlitetouch #35mmphotography #analogphoto #kyotogram #kyotographie x … Continue reading “Far Away (Ground Zero)” →

by jad

Travel Spam and Transport Geographies

Back to our regularly scheduled programming with more travel spam that the same 10-15 people care about. I’d wanted to lean into the “nonlinear” in my bio by mixing up photos from the two visits to NYC that bookended our trip, but found it harder to find the plot than I expected. So, to get me back into the flow, here’s the quintessential New York experience: the Metro now OMNY. Twenty years ago, I was such a greenhorn to big cities shaped like grids that I had no concept of stations having many entrances or trains having different directions of … Continue reading “Travel Spam and Transport Geographies” →

by jad

A Part of Us Left in Italy

We’re back in New York, but we’ve left a part of us in Italy. Going through my photos and thinking about our trip feels a little like this scene around Constantine’s Colosso in fragments at the Capitoline Museums: bits and pieces indexing other bits and pieces, a mosaic of affect still in need of putting together. It’s a good thing I have so many photos to go through. I’m going to need more time processing this experience. x Our trip to Italy was a convergence of several “tracks,” for the lack of a better word, one of which being @christine.bingham.art’s … Continue reading “A Part of Us Left in Italy” →

by jad

Near Raphael’s Grave, Thinking About Orientalism

I’m sitting in a room that’s a ten-minute walk from where Raphael is buried in Rome, going through the last couple of shots I took from the exhibit of his life and work at the Met, writing these words while waiting for the sun to start setting, to get respite from the unbearable heat blazing across Europe. And I’m only just now noticing the subtitle the curators had chosen: “sublime poetry.” Being in Italy during this heatwave has been an interesting twist to a challenge we’d already set ourselves. Italy is infamous for its inscrutable ways. But there’s graffiti in … Continue reading “Near Raphael’s Grave, Thinking About Orientalism” →

by jad

MoMA, Duchamp, and a Birthday at the Raphael Exhibit

We’re in the Eternal City of Rome, but my mind’s still in the city that never sleeps—partially, because I’m very jet lagged and have barely slept in the past 48 hours, but mostly because I’ve a shit ton of photos left from our time there and it’s been way too hot to take many photos here. So I’ll be sharing some shots from the art museums we visited. This is the Rothko room at MoMA. 20 years ago, I only visited the Met and spent the whole time in the Modern Art section where I saw a Rothko for the … Continue reading “MoMA, Duchamp, and a Birthday at the Raphael Exhibit” →