When I finally made it to New York, after stops in Kansas City and New Orleans and an excruciatingly long turn through the south, I was quite literally the wide-eyed kid in the big city. Everything around me was bigger and I was much, much smaller.
But it didn’t take long for me to start working on getting the balance a bit evened out, though no one, save perhaps Sinatra and a few other choice people, could ever hope to equal this city. Now, I said “working on” getting the balance evened out, not actually doing any balancing, there’s a difference. But none the less, I tried.
I was the guest of some very gracious hosts while in Gotham, the ideal kind of hosts for a trip like this and an explorer such as myself. They pointed me in directions, told me how the subway worked and set me on my way. And at night after a long day of walking and taking snaps, they took me out for beers. Bless you Tim, Wally and Whit, bless you. And so I walked, and walked, and rode plenty of Subway trains, lamenting as I write this the loss of tokens for the switch to those plastic cards.
I spent so much time on subway platforms that I began to see a pattern in the exposure. On the Greyhound trip I used only one camera (OM-2) and one lens (35mm) and just one emulsion (TMZ). And then, about two days into my stay, as I was about to descend onto the platform, it dawned on me that whenever I was down there, I needed to shoot wide open at 1/30th of a second. And if I was going to make good on my photographic education, I should probably put this revelation to use.
So here I am, about to walk down to catch a train, the light bulb having just popped on over my head and I stop to make the adjustment. As soon as I look up from my camera, I saw her.
February 20th, 2007 at 9:32 am
That is an amazing photo, Garrison. Photos like this are treasures because they create dialogues. Sentimental in nature possibly. Romantic. Very romantic. Not just in terms of “love” but in terms of sentiment, communication, relation. She is looking at you. You are capturing the moment. There is a relationship here. She is realizing it? Maybe. Maybe not. But maybe she is. Is the photographer realizing it? What more is there? Who is she? Could she have been someone important to you? An eventual lover? An eventual enemy? It’s all in that look of awereness. At least for me. Possible pasts. It doesn’t *matter* so much as it simple *was* and makes us think about what happens, what could have, what couldn’t have, happened next.
February 22nd, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Wow! What an expression! I love the lines, the framing, and the subtle tones> Beautiful photo!