Essays / tag / documentary

Twilight falls upon the City. New York becomes this wondrous place when Helios takes his chariot beneath the horizon and the stars like diamond dust fill the skies.

The people who live and work here bustle about, the City taking a deep relaxing breath as it heads from twilight to an obsidian night.

Like fireflies the leviathans along the great avenues begin to flicker and glow, their light filling the void with amber and blue.

The people look up into that brilliance amazed the garish beauty of it all, enthralled by the spell the City weaves in neon and sodium light.

 No matter where in the City, no matter the business the Night becomes a new and different form of life.

 The windows of the great stores on Madison giving a floor show for all who wish to see.

All the while people live their lives with their friends, 

And begin their journeys home 

The cars filling the streets looking to escape back to wherever they need to be 

Slowly the streets empty 

And the color finally washes out to a soft white 

A different magic begins to fill the Night now 

One in which retrospect of the day that has passed begins to fill our thoughts 

The urgency to find sanctuary heightens as we look for that safe haven until the Sun rises again 

We wonder if we shall be abandoned and forgotten in the fading glow 

Perhaps a late show to chase away the feeling of isolation 

As all the places begin to become lonely 

Empty 

We all escape 

Except me. I’m a ghost. I am alone.

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This little video goes over what I carry each day in my daily camera bag. This is basically what I have with me when I walk around daily, and whenever I do documentary photography. For the most part the why's and wherefore of the individual cameras and digital gear are covered in earlier articles here about mobile photography. Just click that tag on the left and you'll find them. The only thing I really didn't talk about was the bag itself, the Domke F-802.

I love Domke bags. My old F-2 and F-1x have been with me for a couple of decades along with the F-803. The way these bags are made out of military grade impregnated canvas is just bulletproof. Outside of a Pelican Case, nothing is better than a Domke. They may not be as flashy as say a Billingham, but they do the job well and for the most part are designed much like the cameras that were around when Bill Domke created the bag when on the staff of the Philadelphia Enquirer, to last a lifetime.

As far as the large number of notebooks I carry, what can I say. I do use them heavily, and have a fetish for Moleskin notebooks specifically. There is just something about a well crafted little notebook like the ones they make. Something very Zen, much like shooting film on an old Leica Rangefinder. To be honest that is why I love shooting documentary (or euphemistically "street") photography. I don't shoot it to get into Time Magazine or anything like that. I shoot it to document the world I see and in all honesty to relax and almost meditate. I try not to worry about much when I shoot street and while for time and cost primarily shoot this work digitally, on occasion I will break out one of my old film cameras, many of them without built in meters and shoot the old fashion way, f/8 and be there as well as Sunny 16.

Enjoy the video, and do read the articles that go in more detail about the items I carry.


While covering New York Fashion Week for WWD this past September, I had a chance to wander around the local area and do a little documentary work. Enjoy.

Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week
Pure StreetOne day during New York Fashion Week

Well I try to write daily into this blog, but that isn't always practical. This week is such a case as it was the inaugural CFDA Men's Fashion Week here in NYC. It was the Spring/Summer 2016 Collections on view and between the house gigs and WWD I was kept somewhat busy. Wednesday night however I took the time to celebrate with my friend Loris Diran after his show which was a great success.

After enjoying a quiet though happy celebration at the Park Plaza Hotel by Central Park, I took the opportunity to do a little street photography using a camera I recently purchased used so I could adapt some classic lenses from the 60's that I love. At some later time I'll discuss more about adapting lenses to mirrorless cameras, but for now enjoy these shots of NYC at night.....

Shot on a Sony NEX-6 using a FotoDIOX PenF to NEX Adapter. Lens is an Olympus F.Zukio Auto-S 38/1.8