04.25.2010 | 10:29 PM • Filed in:
Travel:Family:Humor:Portrait
04.25.2010 | 09:40 PM • Filed in:
Travel
04.24.2010 | 10:39 PM • Filed in:
Nature:Travel
04.23.2010 | 09:38 PM • Filed in:
Family:Travel:Light
04.21.2010 | 10:11 PM • Filed in:
News:Brooklyn
Money wins. Daniel Goldstein, the founder of Develop
Don’t Destroy, has agreed to settle with Forest City
Ratner, the developer of Atlantic Yards, for $3
million. He lives a few blocks from my studio on
Pacific Street and was the last man standing in the
footprint who hadn’t been bought out. The $3M
apparently buys Goldstein’s condo, bought for $590K
in 2003, and his silence--Goldstein agrees to “not
actively oppose the project,” which primarily means
to abandon the only coalition actively opposed to the
project, DDD. Read more about this sad news
here. Good news:
Freddy’s, the great bar (and
Ratner hate HQ) around the corner from my home,
closes on April 30th, but will reopen on 4th and
Union.
04.19.2010 | 11:38 PM • Filed in:
Nature:Brooklyn
04.10.2010 | 11:52 PM • Filed in:
Nature
04.08.2010 | 02:34 PM • Filed in:
Art:Street
Photography
The photographer who took some of the most
influential photographs of the 20th Century (and made
the word Leica a household name) is having a giant
posthumous retrospective at
MOMA. This photo, taken in
April of 1945, though less artful and more
strictly photojournalistic, is one which has
always resonated with me. Besides the explosive
emotion, there’s a novel’s worth of content
which can be extrapolated from the scene. For
those of us who were schooled in the decisive
moment street photography aesthetic, HCB is a
god. His genius was not only in his timing, but
in his distance. Asked once about what inspired
him to trip the shutter when he did, he said,
I’m paraphrasing,
“La géometrie.” True,
but like Bach who pretended that all his
compositions were nothing more than mathematical
variations, form is clearly married to passion
throughout HCB’s work. What makes the show,
which opens Sunday, a real treat is that many
never before seen photos will be on view, some
of which are included on the
HCB, The Modern
Century’s web
preview.
04.07.2010 | 11:51 PM • Filed in:
Street
Photography
04.06.2010 | 11:53 PM •
While on a long walk this afternoon, I approached
this statue of Grant on horseback and met Charlie
Brown, 65, a very charming and happy man who talked
my ear off about his life in apartment 3B across
Bedford Ave.
04.06.2010 | 11:52 PM • Filed in:
Street
Photography:Brooklyn
This amorous couple actually shouted at me to come
take their picture. A rare event. Of course I
complied.
04.06.2010 | 11:51 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn:Light
04.06.2010 | 11:50 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn:Street
Photography:Animals
04.06.2010 | 11:48 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn:Street
Photography:Art
04.06.2010 | 11:46 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn:Street
Photography
04.04.2010 | 11:44 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn:Pic
of the Day
Sisters on the waterfront enjoying the view from
Brooklyn Bridge Parks’ Pier 1.
04.04.2010 | 11:39 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn
In mid-March, Bloomberg et al commemorated the first
part of the Brooklyn Heights new park known as
Brooklyn Bridge Park. Formerly a bunch of abanoned
docks and warehouses, this land that borders the last
part of the East River is now verdant and hiply
designed. The first part, Pier 1, is open to the
public. Other adjacent piers are being converted and
should be open by summer. Read more about the plans
here.
04.02.2010 | 11:39 PM • Filed in:
Nature:Brooklyn
04.02.2010 | 11:38 PM • Filed in:
Street
Photography:Brooklyn
04.02.2010 | 11:08 AM • Filed in:
News
The above photo was released by Russian news
agencies. It is said to be a portrait of one of the
Moscow suicide bombers (Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova,
likely not yet 17) and her husband, Umalat Magomedov,
a “militant Islamist,” who was killed in 2009. A big
novel could be written about this photograph. The
youth, the cocky pride, the Bonnie and Clyde
coolness--and all the blood of innocent victims on
their hands in the name of
vengeance and political
oppression. While it seems the condemnation
is universal, the West still refuses to face the
difficult question: why would a young woman
barely on the brink of adulthood willingly
destroy herself and dozens of innocent
strangers?
04.01.2010 | 11:28 PM • Filed in:
Brooklyn
You’re looking at the future site of the Brooklyn
Nets stadium. In 2011 with lots of traffic. Below is
a closer view, with the building in the top right
containing the home of Daniel Goldstein, the founder
of
Develop Don’t Destroy. Most
likely all buildings around here will be razed
first before the eminent domain showdown for
Goldstein’s property and a few other holdouts
who refused to be bought out by Ratner’s deep
pockets.