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After two weeks in New York City

I've been in New York for two weeks already. Started to work at Magnum, spend about 50 hours on my way to and from work, met a lot of realy nice and interesting people, took a bunch of photos and even experienced a machine-gun shooting in my neighborhood just yesterday night while looking out of the window (nothing bad happend so far).

So what can I say after my first two weeks in the Big Apple? Everything seems to work out really well. I enjoy my work at Magnum Photos a lot. It's such an interesting place to work, the possibilities to learn are enormous. Being surrounded by these photographs all day long, doing photo research in Magnum's database as well as in photobooks published by Magnum or their photographers, learning from my colleagues through talking about photography, learning how to edit pictures through doing it, all these things are very enjoyable. I did some print- and webdesign already, helped resarching stories, shared ideas and framed prints. One of the best things about my new working surrounding is that all people here are really interested in photography. Some of them do take pictures on their own, others don't. All of them share a deep passion for the medium!

Other than that I do also enjoy my stay in New York City in my spare time. Watching people on the subway, walking round the streets on weekends, trying to capture this speciall something which makes this city so famous. What I mentioned is that it is a lot easier to get into touch with people, some just start talking to you on the street. If they don't but you'd like to know a little more about them start talking on your own. Interesting talks can arise out of that.
And there is something going on in this city all the time. Whenever I tried to attend a special event I heared about before, I never made it because there was something else coming in my way which was even more interesting to me.

Regarding photography, another thing which has to be mentioned is that you've really got so much more possibilities in New York than you've got in Vienna. There are lot's of museums, galleries, schools and of course photographers around. I'm sure New York is a rather tough place to work as a photographer since there are probably more of them then somewhere else. Never saw such a big density of people with their professional Leicas, Canons, Nikons or whatever around their necks.

I am in New York City now but I didn't get used to it so far. There is always something new to discover, something new to mention, new projects to develope, new people to meet. This is the way it should be.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on May 12, 2005 03:03 PM