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Arrival in New York City

I'm in New York City finally! I arrived on Wednesday at about 1:30 pm after a 10 hours flight from Vienna to London and to New York. The flight was alright although I didn't have a chance to get a seat near the emergency exit which would have been great because of the extra space for my feet. Anyway, after having my fingerprints and photo taken by an officer of the Homeland Security I got my travelling bag and headed out of the airport building to get a cab. About 20 minutes later I arrived in Co-Op City. So there is this European guy standing in the middle of Co-Op City at the northeast end of the Bronx with his camera bag and a big travelling bag.
After putting my stuff into the apartment of Victor - the guy I will be staying with for the next couple of months - I went down to the supermarket to get some sort of sore throat pastilles. But... They didn't help me (what else should I have expected).

So I came to New York after quite a few months of preparations and I am starting my stay with a rather bad cold. I am sniffing, I got a cough and I got sore throat. It seems to get worse from hour to hour. I guess the stress in the last weeks and the airconditioning on board the airplane, in the cab and on the subway have been to much for me. Well and since I forgot the plug adapter for my cameras batteries I went to Manhatten by train to get one. And of course it just started raining rather heavily when I came out of the station on 33rd Street.
To be honest, this situation peeved me quite heavily. I've been awake for about 50 hours, I am starting to get a cold just a few days before I start to work and now I am getting wet as well... Anyway - I got my cable and Victor who is working at the Brooklyn Academy of Music picked me up from Manhatten and drove me back to Co-Op City. We had pizza and a bottle of wine together this evening but I had to go to bed early. I just haven't been able to stay up longer.

I haven't been doing much yesterday. Wanted to make a day off, relaxing and sleeping a bit. So I've just been sitting and lying around, went to the "Bravo" supermarket where I already got my first customer card and went for a walk through Co-Op City...

Co-Op City is a rather interesting place to be from my point of view. It's completly different to what Manhattan stands for. Constructions for this apartment complex began in 1968 and up to now there are about 15.300 units in 35 buildings. As the name might already tell, it's kind of a city within the city. There are schools, shops, sports fields and a museum around here. Co-Op City does even have their own police force, the CCPD. As far as I can estimate that, the community in this part of the Bronx seems rather well build. Everyone is friendly, people seem to know each other more or less.

I am a guy from Austria who has been to New York City for two weeks last year. So a lot of the things I know about this city or rather belive to know come from TV. As everybody knows there are lot's of movies and series around which take place in the Bronx. Drug Dealers, murders and rapers do live there... At least in those movies. So I am full of prejudices because that's what I have learnt within the last 25 years. So living in the Bronx, seeing that there is a good ethnical mixture of people living here side by side is rather interesting. I feel very comfortable around here and I am looking forward on taking a deeper look into Co-Op City and the different sides of the Bronx.

Enough for now. I'll be heading towards Manhattan to meet the guys of Magnum Photos for the first time this afternoon. I am anxious to meet those people in person and to enter this significant bureau in which so many of the most influential photographs of the last 50 years are stored on 151 West 25th Street.

Posted by Martin Fuchs on April 29, 2005 02:28 PM