The High Line

It seems the newly opened High Line park has been quite a hit this past summer. There has been a bit of controversy surrounding the newly opened park, and I'm generally part of the camp that thinks it was better before it was Disneyfied. My experiences with it go back to early 2008 when the lower sections were under construction and being stripped out for the park conversion.

I had managed to climb up one of the construction scaffolds and scale the side of the railway near a gas station and wandered south to the sections that were being worked on. At this point pretty much all of the grass and wildflowers were gone and they were in the process of tearing up the passageways through some of the buildings. I was able to get on a few rooftops and into some of the abandoned buildings that were connected to it and took some photos. I also discovered a stairway that led to the inside of an active meat packing plant along the route. I pulled my hoodie over my head like the employees I spotted, and walked right out the front door of the building and into Hogs N Heifer's Saloon right across the street where I was promptly extorted by the scantily clad bartenders.

It would be nearly a year before I visited the High Line again. The park had recently opened and I tried to visit it coincidentally on the same day as the LGBT Pride parade. Sure enough, the city decided to shut down the park early because too many people were trying to visit it. Not being one to be turned away so easily, I decided that I was going to see it that day no matter what. I made my way to the one entrance I was sure the parks department still had no control over and headed up. Walking past some Metro North Employee's smoking on an adjacent rooftop, I waved and said "Beautiful day, isn't it?" to which they agreed and didn't give me another look as I continued along the tracks. This section in particular was still wild and untouched by the parks department. The railings were all still beautifully rusty and the plants grew anywhere they pleased. I ran into a man walking along in the opposite direction and stopped briefly to chat with him. He said that he passes through pretty often and nobody seems to really care. He seemed a little twitchy and nervous as I spoke to him, so I thanked him and started on my way. As I began walking he said "Would you like to take a picture of me?" I was surprised but I agreed and quickly snapped a shot. Before I even had an opportunity to ask him for an email address or way to reach him if he wanted a copy, he was off walking down the tracks. I spent a while longer up there photographing and exploring the still abandoned sections and snuck a peek at the park before heading home.

Having had such a pleasant time up there, I knew I had to return with a model as soon as possible. It seemed the construction equipment was getting dangerously close to this last section and I'd kick myself if I didn't manage to pull off a shoot on it before it was turned into another boring park. I called up Marlo that week and we got together on a late afternoon to head up there. When we met near Penn Station, it was pouring rain, and we only had an hour or two of daylight left. We hopped from awning to awning and slowly made our way to the entrance, hoping that the rain would let off soon. It had slowed down to a drizzle and I decided that would have to be good enough and we started on our way up. Just as we were getting to the area I planned to shoot in, the rain stopped completely and the sky opened up just in time for the sunset. Perfect! I couldn't have hoped for better conditions and the shoot went off without a hitch. Despite being only a few blocks from midtown, we only managed to attract the attention of a single guy working at a warehouse next to the rail line and were able to wrap it up pretty quickly. As usual, Marlo was great and we got exactly the shots I'd hoped to.

I guess I too was feeling a lot of love for this little section of rail and I ended up planning a little 4th of July celebration of my own up there. This year, they decided to have the Macy's fireworks displays over the Hudson River in honor of the anniversary of it's discovery. It seemed like it would be a perfect spot to view them from as it was both secluded and had an unobstructed view of the river. Myself and a few others made our way through a little known subterranean connection to the High Line a few minutes before the fireworks were set to start. We bypassed all the crowds this way and discretely made our way to our VIP seats. We stretched out and cracked a few beers while the hoards of people just 20 feet on the other side of a fence stood packed like sardines, surrounded by police barricades and unable to move, drink, or sit. Yet another example of how it always pays to have your experiences on your own terms and not accept those that are pre-packaged for you.

Marlo

A couple outtakes/alternates from my shoot with Marlo on the Municipal Building. This was a long time coming, it had taken me quite a while to find a model that was brave enough to venture out onto that ledge. Marlo was fantastic and we were quite efficient, getting it all done with in a matter of 30 minutes or so from meeting in City Hall Park to exiting the building victoriously. This was one of the situations where I had a really solid idea about the exact positioning/pose/framing I wanted for the shot. That's what ended up in the final version.

These are two images that had some elements I found interesting and worth exploring a bit. The first is a color version that gives a sense of what the day was like, this was taken at the end of November and it was at most 45 degrees out and quite windy. I love the full view of City Hall below and sense of the color changes happening in the trees. I also like the pose itself in the sense that it is a bit more contemplative and is directly confronting the drop below. It more directly addresses the mortality issues that sometimes spring up in my work. I only wish that this composition were as strong overall as the final version, but it just didn't compare.

This last shot is a candid I ended up taking after we were done that I was sure would have been a throwaway. After being out there for a good 15 minutes or so, Marlo was starting to shiver and that meant the shoot was over. I told her we were done and she could come back in. I handed Marlo her slip dress she decided to get dressed while still standing out on the ledge and I realized I still had a frame or two left to waste on my film camera, so I leaned out through the columns once again and snapped off this image. As it turned out, it ended up being my favorite from the whole roll of film. Although it really doesn't fit in with the conceptual framework of my project, I found it to be strangely captivating. It's definitely got a voyeuristic feel, yet when combined with the setting, it makes it something completely different.

This really is a special little place. It's in the center of one of the busiest areas of the cities and in one of the largest government buildings in the world, yet it manages to be one of the most peaceful and secluded places in the entire city. It's high enough that all the city noise and chaos seems to disappear with the wind, and pedestrians are not much more than ants going about their busy little days. You really couldn't ask for a better refuge from the daily grind.