Pray
November 17th, 2008
Red Hook Marine Terminal and the Opera
September 16th, 2008The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach,
performed by the Vertical Player Repertory on the Pier in Red Hook
09/11/08
September 12th, 2008I was living with my best friend in Jersey City then. Our apartment was on the 8th floor and a couple blocks from the waterfront overlooking the Hudson and the World Trade Center on the other side. we had gotten up early that day because she was going to the opera after work. She was going to wear a little black dress and I was going to do her hair. The east side of our studio apartment was all windows so if we didn’t close the blinds at night the sun would wake us up at dawn and made us sweat. We were sitting on my bed and I was french braiding her hair when the phone rang. No one ever called us that early. It was my father. He asked if we were OK and told us to open the blinds and turn on the TV.
The rest of the day happened in a blur. We saw the smoke from the first tower out our window and herd the second plane hit as we were running down the stairs of our building. Everyone had emptied out of their office and apartment buildings onto the street. I remember people screaming and grown men crying in the street. (that always scares me to see them cry). There was smoke pouring out of the buildings but I remember my complete astonishment when they collapsed. Something that hadn’t crossed my mind. They flattened like a house of cards. The photographers were fighting with police to get closer and people stood dazed staring across the river.
I what I remember most is the helpless feeling. we went back to the apartment and watched the news. Trains weren’t running. ( especially ours… it let out underneath the World Trade Center.) Cell phones weren’t working. My roommate left to try to get closer and see what was happening. I started seeing the calls for blood donations on TV. I got in my car and tried to find the hospital in Jersey City. The highway was a tangle of cartoonish traffic; over and underpasses stopped dead with cars in exodus. I pulled off and went into a diner. It was full but eerie with silence except for the news on TV. I just wanted someone to take my blood so I could feel useful. But I gave up on getting to the hospital. I went back home and listened to the woman next door crying.
We watched the smoke billow across our window for days. The hospital boats on the river. The chemical sunsets. The faces of people’s missing sisters, fathers, daughters, plastered on anything that would stand still. The piles of donated bottled water on the pier. Candle light vigils. More American flags than I have ever seen in my life. Messages written in chalk on the street. More crying and wandering people. And the smoke still rising and slowly blowing northeast.
I didn’t go downtown this year but could see the lights from my street in Brooklyn.
I think you can almost see them form anywhere in NY.
-
- (he's saluting)
Barcelona and Perpignan
September 3rd, 2008Some photos from the beginning of Visa Pour l’Image:
Heathrow in the middle of the night
August 28th, 2008On my way to Barcelona and Perpignan! …. after a 10 hour layover in London. Only 7 more hours to go….
The City Visible
August 24th, 2008Check out my photo essay in the NY Times! City section: Lush Life
and here are a few extras from the series that aren’t in the paper…
a family history of photography
August 23rd, 2008So for my very first post I thought I’d share a photo from the family album:
This is my mother and uncle being forced to sit and pose for my grandfather who was very excited about his new camera and bright lights. (My mother still hates having her picture taken, maybe this is why…)