I Am In A New York State of Mind : The Photographs of Matthew Pillsbury

Sorry about not posting lately computer issues. I am happy that they are almost resolved . Continuing with the New York theme
these images by Matthew Pillsbury offer not only his views of the city which are magical, as they capture light over an extended period of time, they remind me of places and things I have done.


Why I love this city


all images copyrighted Matthew Pillsbury and are used with his permission  

I Am In A New York State of Mind : Photographs by Susan Wides

I have lived in New York a very long time, yet I still say I am a southerner .Funny thing I never thought I would leave home even if I was a fish out of water there , I still knew how to breathe and I had a great time . As with most things in my life something serendipitous happen, love happened and I found myself in New York for a weekend. A weekend that became the beginning of a new home and many evolutions of me.

I have often said I came to New York because I love snow, that is still true. A bigger truth is, I was not thinking at all, I wanted to be here

I can sit inside my apartment and feel the energy of a living city pulsating through the bricks and mortar.I can be in a crowd here and feel quiet and stillness. I do not look for pictures of New York I am here now,but when I saw these images by Susan Wides I was drawn into her vision, I know these places , even to someone who lives here they can be strange yet beautiful and making us see that is part of what artists do.

All images are copyrighted by Susan Wides

On The Streets with Humans of New York : See Your Neighbors and Friends

So many photographs visit the site see the links

On The Streets with Humans of New York 5 More

My heart smiles.To get a complete look at this project check out the Facebook or HONY website

On The Streets with Humans of New York 5 More

What a wonderful concept, yet each image stands alone, in my thoughts I am humming What A Wonderful World...Louis Armstrong version .The part that says " How do you do ? ". Of course I can only show a small number of these images but Brandon is being very prolific which this project requires. Please visit his website and read the stories you will be please to meet the Humans of New York and people just like you and me from many different backgrounds who call NewYork home.

On The Streets with Humans of New York

What do you call a project that combines the idealism of Balzac's the Human Comedies and August Sander's pursuit of documenting subjects for his People of the 20th Century ? What do you call a project that brings to mind many past forays into taking street portraits, yet seems to feel fresh maybe because the pictures were made just a few minutes ago on the supposedly mean streets of New York by a young photographer who engages his subjects directly with a smile and a request to pose or not.

Humans of New York, a photographic census with stories by a young photographer named Brandon Stanton who is close to making 4000 images and has written about fifty small stories about them.He has a long way to go there are 8 million in the city. I think it will be fun to follow this project. I spent over an hour recently looking at his website after seeing some images on Facebook .I reconigze a few of his subjects , one a professor and rabbi lives in my apartment building others I have seen on the streets.These are just people going about life and so far Brandon seems to be visiting every neighborhood and social group not just street people.

I felt this was a natural complement to the Vivian Maier posting

There have been complaints in the past about the smiles that a camera can produce in some portraits. Maybe that smile is really a way to say I am dropping my guard,I am letting you in to photograph me. This smile is part of the celebration of the act of being noticed .

More Vivian Maier

Memories that are not real for me yet I still want to see them and test them out.It is a Mad Man moment

On The Streets of Chicago : Vivian Maier

The term street photography says it all taken in Chicago in the sixties and seventies

I Know These People, People Like Me : More Images By Vivian Maier

One of the things about growing up in midcentury America was the seemly lack of interest in showing ordinary people of color, particularly black Americans in the main stream forms of communication of the time. We were starved for representation then along came the sixties and the seventies. I still search and think about the way images are made , presented and used.I was delighted to find these among Vivian Maier photographs