Back to New York and the end of New York Photoblog

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Dear friends, supporters and visitors of New York Photoblog,

I left New York about 3 months ago and went back to Vienna. I enjoyed the time back home, I continued to photograph, had a couple of assignments for a newspaper, enjoyed the time with my girlfriend and my family. But I also missed New York, it's energy, it's composure, it's people, the streets...

About two weeks ago Mark Lubell and Claudine Boeglin from Magnum New York called me to ask me if I'd like to return to Magnum for another 3 months to work on an important project. This time I'd get payed, the internship is over. To make a long story short and not bother you with details, I said yes after my girlfriend said ok.

So I am happy to announce that I'll be back in New York City from March to May 2006. Yeah baby, the adventure continues... :-)
At the same time this is the official announcement of the end of New York Photoblog. Since I don't know what time will bring and I can't run a website about New York if I'm not there, I worked on a new project, a new website, a new blog that will be about photojournalism, photography and passion.
I am happy to have Lexar, ColorVision and Digital Railroad as sponsors for my new project. They again support me with their equipment and know-how. I am still negotiating with Canon and really hope that they'll also continue to support me.

The new website "Journal Of A Photographer" will launch on March 1st 2006. So long you can check out my portfolio website or my Digital Railroad archive for some recent photographs.
New York Photoblog will of course stay online for now. Fell free to browse the archives or check out some of my favourite posts. I selected a couple of posts from New York Photoblog which I find most interesting, entertaining or somehow informative.

A selection of New York Photoblog posts

Audio interview with Magnum photographer Simon Wheatley - November 28, 2005
New gallery: A Backstage Look At Magnum Photos New York - November 21, 2005
An open letter to Magnum New York and a job in London - November 03, 2005
A night out with Bruce Gilden - October 30, 2005
Multimedia Gallery: Four Years Later - 9/11 Commemoration - October 17, 2005
Anti-War Protesters in front of the White House - September 26, 2005
Back from my trip to Washington, DC - September 24, 2005
People waiting at a bus stop in Lower Manhattan - September 07, 2005
Color is color is color is color - September 06, 2005
An adventure: A day trip to Staten Island - September 05, 2005
The Alex Webb / Chuck Norris connection - August 28, 2005
How my impressions about New York changed so far - August 19, 2005
War Photographer: The Backstage Story - August 18, 2005
Some certain small things that make me know: I'm back - August 17, 2005
Karin and Nicole in the quietness of the night - August 07, 2005
Observing the passers-by from above on 5th Avenue - August 02, 2005
Sun slit in Midtown Manhattan - July 23, 2005
A Giant grabbing a couple on 5th Avenue in Manhattan - July 21, 2005
Prospecting for girls in El Barrio - July 20, 2005
Uncle Sam, the man with the big hat - July 14, 2005
Thomas Eickhoff on the traces of his family - July 12, 2005
More photos of the Gay Pride Parade 2005 - June 28, 2005
Two men on 5th Avenue - June 20, 2005
A rooftop movie night - June 19, 2005
Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City Part I - June 12, 2005
Puerto Rican Festival in Spanish Harlem - June 11, 2005
A woman waiting on the sidewalk - June 07, 2005
Sunday on the beach and at a parade - June 05, 2005
It's all about photography... - June 03, 2005
Todays Magnum In Motion Meeting - May 31, 2005
Dance Africa 2005 in Brooklyn - May 30, 2005
Tasty and fresh - Fulton Fish Market Part I - May 27, 2005
316 (Threehundredandsixteen) American National Flags - May 22, 2005
42nd Street Subway Station - May 17, 2005
Getting Carl De Keyzer a coffee - May 07, 2005
Joe the man who's picture was taken a thousand times - May 01, 2005
Arrival in New York City - April 29, 2005

So thank's again for visiting New York Photoblog and stay tuned for the new site! Remember March 1st is the launch date for it!
I hope to see you again on "Journal Of A Photographer" soon.

Martin

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:30 AM | Comments (14)

An evening protest in Vienna III

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 02:48 PM | Comments (3)

An evening protest in Vienna II

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A couple of days ago the union of the Austrian Post called for a protest march against the privatization of the Austrian Post. They expected about 800 participants, about 350 came.
Anyway, they started to march at about 4:30 pm when it was almost dark. Not exactly what I'd call good light conditions to photograph. I used a flash to photograph in the beginning but I haven't really been happy with the results. Since I didn't have an assignment for that I decided to play round a little bit and shot without a flash and at times from 1 second to 1/6 of a second.
Obviously there is a lot of movement in the images. Usually not what I like to work with but I found the results interesting.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 02:04 PM | Comments (3)

An evening protest in Vienna

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 02:29 AM | Comments (2)

New gallery: A Backstage Look At Magnum Photos New York

Long time no see. I took sort of a break during the last 10 days. I was working on the concept for a new project, I worked on the interview with Simon Wheatley, I met with friends in Vienna, I did some work for Magnum and for the last couple of days I was busy saving my Laptop from dying. Suddenly it started to crash every couple of minutes. I went to buy a second external harddrive, saved all my files on it and reinstalled the operating system. Fortunatly everything seems to work again.
Anyways, regarding the job at Magnum in London. I didn't get an answer yet. I'll have to wait another couple of days.

New gallery with images from Magnum

Today I am updating the blog with a new gallery showing images I took during my time at Magnum. It's mosty snapshots. This new gallery is a tribute to those behind the scenes. The photographers do a great job, but let's not forget about the people who work for all the Magnum photographers and who dedicate theirselfs to this job. Working at Magnum is certainly not the best payed job in the world so people don't work at Magnum for the money. Damn, if it's not because of the money... Why do they work there? Because of their passion. This gallery is a tributen to my colleagues at the Magnum Photos office in New York as it is to give you a better insight in the work circumstances there. It was good fun and I really never had another job which I only liked nearly as much as this one. Originally I wanted to record all the staff. Everybody should have told me their name, what they are doing at Magnum and sort of a nice and funny anecdote about work. I started doing that but since I left New York five days earlier then expected I couldn't finish this. So no sound this time.

I hope you enjoy this little look backstage! Let me know what you think and the next update will be the Simon Wheately interview.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:55 PM | Comments (25)

The 2005 New York City Marathon

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:49 PM | Comments (3)

Another shot from yesterday night

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (5)

Fun shots from a farewell to Magnum evening

Morten

Nick

Irene

Magda and Ian

Nick and Martin

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

Face of the night: Samantha

Click image to enlarge and visit the archive for more faces of the night.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:07 PM | Comments (2)

Face of the night in Co-Op City

Click image to enlarge and visit the archive for more faces of the night.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:31 PM | Comments (5)

Bump N' Grind Baby...

A photograph from the archive today. 116th Street Festival in El Barrio. Click image to enlarge or see another Bump N' Grind Photo here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (1)

Nicholas Marwell - A colleague from Magnum

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Alright, alright... This image looks totally posed. But believe it or not, it isn't posed. It's just a 1/60 of a second. A lucky or unlucky moment - depending on your point of view - in the Deli around the corner from Magnum.

I'll go on to give you some more insight into the people I work with today. Nick was working for Magnum Photos as an editorial researcher for about a year until he quit to take a three months leave. Eventually he came back to Magnum at the beginning of September to work on sponsorship proposals for Magnum In Motion.
Before Nick came back to Magnum we didn't really work together or got to know each other better but I have to say that I really enjoy working with him. He's the maaan. He is a great, funny and honest guy who even goes on hammering into his computer keyboard after braking his thumb. Well perhaps he is not as smart as I thought... ;-)
Oh and by the way... He does a great job baby sitting Bruce Gildens young and really sweet cat... :-) Nick, I salute you.

Read more Magnum Photos related postings in the archive.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:45 PM | Comments (4)

Two more weeks and two days to go...

My co-worker Gemma at the Magnum Photos office in New York - Click image to enlarge

Well I guess it's time to face it. The Magnum New York staff got sick of me after six months and they want me to leave. Just see Gemma above. She just can't stand me anymore... ;-)

Let's be serious. Yes it's time to face it. No more dodging now! I will leave New York in two weeks and two days. My todays post is not going to be an open love letter to New York. I didn't yet write that. But it's going to be a simple information that my time here draws to a close.

I have to admit that I've already been sort of anxious for the last couple of weeks. I knew that the time is running and let me tell you - there is still sooo much to see, to explore and to do in New York. Six months in this city is simply not enough. But I guess two years wouldn't be enough... So I've been thinking about how my life will go on after returning to Vienna. What am I going to do? How will I find a job? What is the best way to reach my goals? And so on...

Well... Magnum offered me a job about a month and a half ago. If I would have accepted I would have worked in Magnums digital deparment. Basically sanning images and retouching them. Wow, I would have had the chance to stay and live in New York. Stay with Magnum, get more experience, inhale the greatest city in the world! BUT - and that's the great but: I didn't take it. It cost me quite some energy, nervous, fussed hours and long talks on the phone until I decided, after thinking about it very well, that this job might not be what I really want to do. I think that this job wouldn't have led me in the direction I want to take. The direction: Taking photographs, becoming better and better, start to earn money with it and reaching a goal in photography. I did also think about that a lot and I know that's what I have to do. BUT and that's another but: I am yet not quite sure about the way I should go for that. Well I guess I already know which way I am going to take but it's certainly not the straight one. The question is if there would be a straight way to go. And let's be honest: The straight ways are usually the most boring ways.

But anyway, I am going to let you know more about my plans somewhen soon. There are still a couple of things to be sorted out and I am excited about that. You can be sure about one thing already: I am already working on a new project for my time after New York and I am sure it will be interesting to a lot of people out there. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter to be informed about what's going on or check back to read about it on my blog.

And isn't there a saying that means something like "You should stop when you are on top"? I wouldn't say that I am on top, there is fortunatly so much more to come, but these last 6 months in New York have certainly been one of my most beautiful and best experiences ever. So why stay when it can only come worse. New York is going to wait for me and I can come back. Now there are new experiences and new adventures waiting for me. I am sure!
And then there is my girlfriend Karin waiting for me... ;-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:50 PM | Comments (12)

Reflections in a bus window at night

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

Times Square at night

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (6)

Soho at night

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

An American Flag on City Island in the Bronx

Not quite as nice as the one from yesterday but still another one for my collection. More Flags in the archive, something else than flags tomorrow. ;-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

The Flag under a rainy sky in Williamsburg

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:21 PM | Comments (7)

A dancing couple in Spanish Harlem

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (5)

Two Guardian Angels in a bus in Washington Heigths

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:48 PM | Comments (6)

Junior Guardian Angels exercise in Washington Heights

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:07 PM | Comments (4)

Carlos Arredondo - A father who lost his son in Iraq

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This image shows 45 year old Carlos Arredondo at the Anti-War March in Washington DC on September 24th. On August 26, 2004 - his 44th birthday - Mr. Arredondo was told by three Marine officers that his son, Alexander Arredondo was killed in Iraq. In that month Carlos Arredondos son just turned 20 years old.
As a reaction to this Carlos Arredondo set the Marine van on fire while he was inside and suffered severe burns. I am not going to post the whole story about what happend that day here. You can read more about it on the websites of CBS News, Not in Our Name or CNN.

Carlos Arredondo joined the Gold Star Families For Peace, an organization of families who have lost relatives in the Iraq war. From on August 15th 2005 he joined the "Bring them home now" tour to have the public remember the war.

Letter written by Alexander Arredondo to his parents - Click image for a larger view

E-Mail send to Melida Arredendo by the Army - Click image for a larger view

I met Mr. Arredondo in front of the White House where he was protesting against the war in Iray. As he was holding up a portrait of his son in uniform he dispensed an envelope containing a copy of a letter his son wrote and a copy of an e-mail which was send to Mr, Arredondos wife by the US Armed Forces.

Today someone told me that the photograph of the guy with the death-mask I posted a couple of days ago doesn't give a feeling of movement, of something else to come. "But this leaves me with something else. A dead sense of no hope and it saddens me. It is an incredibly cold feeling."
Well I'd say rightly. There is so much cruelty going on, so many people died and do still die.
But Carlos Arredondo shows a different way to go. He turns his grief into the fight against such things happening again. He sees hope and is part of a movement trying to change things.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:56 PM | Comments (6)

Preparations for the interview with Simon Wheatley

As I mentioned in an earlier post I was preparing questions for an interview with Magnum nominee Simon Wheatley. I originally planed to do this as a telephone interview because Simon is based in London but since he just spend three weeks in New York I was able to do that interview in person last evening.

I am starting to edit through the material I got and want to put the interview online at the end of next week. This will also be the start of a series of interviews with different photographers.

The photograph above shows Simon Wheatley on the rooftop of Magnum Photos New York office.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

Anti-War Protests in Washington, DC - Part III

More Anti-War Protests here and here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:13 PM | Comments (3)

Anti-War Protesters in front of the White House

Christian Lehner wrote a story (in German) about last Saterdays Anti-War march in Washington, DC on the FM4 website (Austrian Broadcast) and used a selection of photographs I took to illustrate his article. The article can be found on the FM4 website.

More photographs and my own impressions about Saterdays march can be seen/read in yesterdays post. More to follow. Peace out!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:53 PM | Comments (8)

Anti-War Demonstration in Washington, DC

My Saterday started at three o'clock in the morning. I got up, took the train through the Bronx, through Manhattan into the heart of Brooklyn where I was supposed to meet the Brooklyn Parents for Peace and Christian Lehner from the Austrian Broadcast to go to Washington, DC for the Anti-War march.

I arrived a little early (05:20 am), the streets have been quiet, almost no traffic. Christian came a couple of minutes after me and the first participants of the march waited around the corner already. We got to talk to a couple of people and finally left with the second bus at about half past six. It was an interesting four hour bus ride to the capital city of the United States. I was sitting next to Mark Gibian, a Williamsburg artist whose father originally immigrated from Prague and whose family still owns a glove shop in Vienna. Austrian connections everywhere. We had a good time talking about a lot of things. Want to try and meet him again before I return to Austria.

After a stop on one of the motorway service areas we got to the outskirts of Washington. The stop on the motor way already promised a lot of people coming to the march. Buses with peace-protesters whereever you looked. Arriving in DC there were buses and hundrets (if not thousands) of people waiting and trying to get onto the subway. Thanks Washington for not letting buses into the city, thanks for running the subway trains on a Saterday scheduled and thanks for doing subway construction work that day. It easily cost us an extra hour. But of course that didn't happen because officials wanted to keep the number of demonstators down... Oh no...

Anyway, we finally got into town with good cheer, found our way to the rally and just came in time for the beginning of the march. I started walking in the march on my own and sometimes even had troubles to take photographs because I hardly could move because of the crowd. Man, there were so many people holding banners and signboards, speaking out against war.

It was a loud but non-violent demonstration. People of all races, from all over the country, young and old, veterans and relatives of military families attended. And I think there have been well over 100.000 people on the streets. Hard to prove since the numbers published by organizers of such events are always to high and the numbers pubished by police is always to low. I usually take those two numbers and the one in the middle seems to come closest. Nowadays Washington officials no longer publish estimated numbers of attendses to such events. I wonder why... Could it be because they don't want the world to know that a lot of Americans are against the war?
As the New York Times reports Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey thinks that the 100,000 people mark was probably hit.

Regarding my feelings throughout the march... I have to say that I was touched by that many people protesting for what they believe in: Peace. I saw parents who lost their sons in Iraq, I saw Vietnam war veterans who don't believe in war anymore. Iraq war veterans who came back from war not that long ago, a lot of them hardly out of teenage age. And there were people stopping in front of the White House stretching their finger towards it. I kind of liked that. But what I even liked more have been those who stopped in front of the White House to form the Victory sign with their hands. Just as the man in the middle photograph told me (unfortunately I didn't get his name): "He is sending peaceful spirits into the White House to stop that mess".

More photographs of the Anti-War demonstration in Washington, DC tomorrow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:57 PM | Comments (7)

Back from my trip to Washington, DC

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I am back home in the Bronx after my trip to Washington, DC. After some troubles getting into the city (they didn't allow buses to drive into Washington) and some confusion on which subway station to take we finally got to the rally and the march against war in Iraq. It was a good day with lot's of good spirit in the air.

I just copied all photographs from today onto my harddrive, renamed them and will edit through tomorrow. I am tired and have to go to bed now...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (1)

One more from the Mexican Independence Day Festical

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

Teenagers at the Mexican Independence Day Festival

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:47 PM | Comments (5)

It's my birthday...

Actually it's not my birthday anymore... Well if looked at it in Austrian time, where I was born, it's not September 18th anymore right now. Well but I guess since it's not midnight yet in New York I can still count it as my birthday.
I was born September 18th at 03:25 a.m. Counting the six hour time difference between Austria and New York that was yesterday evening at 9:25 p.m. Guess what, at 9:15 p.m. I hurried up to finish the milk shake I just consumed at the Co-Op City Mc Donalds. I thought it wouldn't be adequate to be in a Mc Donalds branch 26 years after I was first breathing air. So now I can say that I was walking through Co-Op City in the Bronx 26 years later. Sounds better doesn't it?

I spend my time today working on editing some sound I recorded a week earlier at Ground Zero before taking the train to Harlem to attend the African-American Day Parade. I got off the 116th Street Station and ran into the Mexican Independence Day Festival. Hm, African-American Day Parade or Mexican Independence Day Festival... I decided to first go to the African-American Day Parade and return to the Mexican Festival a little later when the light was better. I am not crazy about either of the shots I took today.

Regarding my birthday... I didn't set up an Amazon wishlist, a Paypal account for donations or something similar. So it's hard for you to send me huge and expensive presents I figure... I'd say it's ok for this year. But next year of course... If you want to do something for me, let me know if you are an editor or photo editor of Mare, Times, The New York Times, Newsweek, Der Standard, Die Presse, Spiegel, Le Monde or some sort other Newspaper, Magazine or publication and want to work with me... :-) Give me a job as photographer!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:42 PM | Comments (8)

Faces at night on Staten Island

I've taken this pictures a couple of days ago on Staten Island. I went there together with Siobhan (first photo) and Irene to celebrate Shiobhan's last night in New York. She was a Magnum intern for three months. Originally born in Germany, she grew up in England and left to finish college in London.
We've just been walking around for a while when we met those two guys, John Ponzio (second photograph) and Richy Mirissis (last photograph), at the waterfront. We somehow started to talk and have finally been hanging out together for about an hour or so. It was good fun, interessting to talk to them and I was able to play around with my flash again... :-)
See more Faces at night in the archive.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (4)

The Fulton Fish Market Part VI

More images of the Fulton Fish Market can be found in the archives.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 07:28 PM | Comments (2)

The Fulton Fish Market - An experience Part V

I went back to the Fulton Fish Market last night. My alarm clock should have rung at 01:30am but sirens of the fire deparment woke me up 15 minutes early. While still half asleep I had the feeling that there must have been at least 10 to 15 fire engines driving past. I got up and looked out of the window but there were only two of them heading somewhere in Co-Op City. The streets were totally empty. I didn't see a single car driving out there. I had kind of a strange feeling and just wanted to get back into my bed and sleep.
Since it's hard to take good pictures while asleep I put my cloths on and left the apartment. I already slept for over 13 hours the night before although I wanted to go to the Fulton Fish Market. Simply didn't hear the alarm clock. So no more excuses.
It took me about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to the bottom of Manhattan. I got of the train at the Brooklyn Bridge / City Hall station and had the smell of fish in my nose right away. I guess this must have been my imagination, nothing else.

The closer I got to the Market, which is located on the East River between South Street Seaport and the Brooklyn Bridgel, the clearer got the smell of fish in the air. I actually like this smell. Obviously not after going back home, realizing that not only my cloths but also my camera strap smells like fish but while being around the market it's perfectly alright with me.

I started to walk around the market, hanging out on this corner, hanging out on that corner. I met Ziggy again, a Puerto Rican fishmonger, with whom I talked already the last time I got there. While walking around I came across Annie. Annie is a over 80 years old woman who comes to the Fulton Fish Market each night for over 50 years already. She is pushing a shopping cart in front of her in which she has cigarettes and newspapers to sell. That's the way she earns her living. She get's the cigarettes from China Town and sells them rather cheap to the people at the market. And she delivers the New York Post, which usually costs 25 Cents to a lot of the fishmongers. They pay her 1 dollar for the paper. She has a certain way to go through the market to make sure everyone get's what they need. I joined Annie and walked around with her. She is a really crazy, funny and lovely woman, joking and shouting around whenever a situation arises. And believe me, that's all the time.

She knows everyone at the market and everyone knows here. I'd say that about 70 percent of the people there (she is more or less the only woman at the market by the way) are her "boyfriends". She loves every "fuckin bastard" as she tells me and she introduced me to some of those guys.
First I met Angelo whom you can see in the photographs above. Angelo is a Portuguese man who came to New York over 20 years ago. He basically started to work at the Fulton Fish Market right after he arrived. I stopped and talked a little bit to him. Since I've been to Portugal quite a couple of times and lost my heart to this country we had something in common and to talk about. The best Portuguese restaurants can't be found in New York City by the way but in Jersey City right across the Hudson River.
I met an Italian fishmonger named Eddy and a guy called Richard who became a Skinhead in 1989 and works as a forklift driver at the market. He has some very clear cut tattoos on his arms as I could see. Richard loves Annie as he told me while hugging her although she is jewish. And he likes reggae music.

I hope to be able to get a little deeper into the Fulton Fish Market and it's people with the little time which is left before the market moves to it's new location in the Bronx. I am planning of going back there twice a week from now on. Will try and see if I can take a day off from work every week.

More Fulton Fish Market in the archives.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

Fulton Fish Market Part IV

More images from my last nights trip to the Fulton Fish Market tomorrow. It was again a very interesting visit... Older images of the Fulton Fish Market can be found in the archive.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:09 PM | Comments (3)

W.B. Himself - Or the American Flag in advertisement

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:22 PM | Comments (2)

A crowd of people in Manhattan

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:25 PM | Comments (2)

Tell me off for $ 2.00

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Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:21 PM | Comments (6)

How New York got its nickname "The Big Apple"

Click image for a larger view (and see the "Big Apple" sign better)

I never really asked myself why New York City is also called "The Big Apple". Today I found the answer... At least a possible one.

I went to Harlem and walked around for a couple of hours. I happend to come across the "Uptown Saterday Nite" Festival which is part of the 2005 Harlem Week. Nothing sensational but on the corner of 135th Street and 7th Avenue I noticed this old red building with a sign showing an upside down apple saying "The Big Apple". I took a photograph and went on.
After coming home I did a little research on the internet, looking for this particular sign in Harlem. That's how I found out about the history of this sign and New Yorks nickname.

In the 1920's Jazz musicians picked the term "Big Apple" up from horseracing people who considered New York races and gigs to be where the big money was. Since a horse, up for a big purse in New York City, can't get paid off in big money himself, the lingo promised him a big apple. At this time a night club opened in Harlem called "The Big Apple". Some historians think that New Yorks nickname may have come from this long forgotten club. The club is gone, the sign, with its upside down apple, is still there.

For another theory you may want to read this article from the Society for New York City History.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:26 PM | Comments (4)

Victor Jouvert - The New Yorker who moved to Vienna

My friend Victor Jouvert is my New York City apartment host. We had some quite good times in Co-Op City and whenever I came home with a new story I had in mind or with some stuff I observed on my ways through New York he could often tell me an interesting story or some background information. Unfortunatly (for me) he moved to Vienna a couple of days ago. That does not mean that I can't stay in his apartment anymore but it means that I am going to miss those nice evenings with him.
Anyway, he moved to Vienna for a year to be with his girlfriend Monika who lived in New York for a few years before coming back to Vienna. They had a house warming party as well as a welcome party yesterday evening which was really funny. The photographs above are from that evening. And guess what... On his way home Victor had an accident and had to be taken to the hospital. So it took him only four days to almost get killed in Vienna.

You can read about his injuries and his experiences as a New Yorker in Vienna on his new weblog here. Or see more Victor on this site here and here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:48 PM | Comments (3)

Prospecting for girls in El Barrio II

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Waiting for the 6 train on 116th Street

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We only come out at night

This is Nicole again. Another one of my first trial photos with a flashlight. See my yesterdays post about my first experiments with a flash.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:24 PM | Comments (3)

Karin and Nicole in the quietness of the night

I've almost never used a flash in my photographs. I never wanted to use a flash. But since Canon Europe just send me a Speedlight 550EX and a wireless transmitter ST-E2 to use the Flash off camera I am going to play round with it and use it for certain stuff. Thanks Canon.

The two images above have been my first trials with that. I went to a park with my girlfriend Karin (on the left) and our friend Nicole. I put the transmitter on the camera holding it with my right hand, kneeled down in front of them and held the flash away in my left hand.

I am still not sure about the use of flash in photography for myself but on the other hand side there are perfect examples of a great usage of flash in photographs:
Take a look at Bruce Gilden's new book "A Beautiful Catastrophe", Carl De Keyzer's "Zona" or at his series "East of Eden". And then there is an amazing series of images of Paolo Pellgrin on this years Victory Day in Moscow.

I am sure it's a long and not so easy way to learn how to use flashlight in a certain way. In the way you want it to be used. But hey, I am trying a lot of new things at the moment, I am widening my my photographic horizon in a lot of ways. And that includes trying out new equipment...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:02 PM | Comments (5)

Dominican teenagers driving around on Grand Concourse

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:35 AM | Comments (0)

Street Scene on Grand Concourse in the Bronx II

I already posted one of these shots taken on Grand Concourse a couple of weeks ago. I am still fascinated by this area and definitly want to learn more about it. I'll go back there as soon as I am in New York again.
Click on the photo above for a bigger view.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 05:49 PM | Comments (1)

Observing the passers-by from above on 5th Avenue

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 07:20 PM | Comments (5)

Summer school class posing for a photo at Ground Zero

More images of people posing for photographs can be found in the archives.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 03:30 PM | Comments (6)

Instructions for a photo inside the Empire State Building

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Victor Jouvert - The New Yorker who moves to Vienna

I accompanied my friend (and the guy I am staying with in Co-Op City) Victor on his way to work a couple of days before I flew back to Vienna for my two weeks stay.
Victor was born in New York and lived here all his life. He told me a little about his way of seeing New York City and his next big step in life.

"I love New York. I don't wanna miss all the experiences growing up here although I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of drugs and crime. I don't know if it's a little more than in other places... I ride my bike to work (from Co-Op City to Brooklyn) pretty often and you get to see so many different parts of the city. You get to see all kinds of neighborhoods. The so calles "good neighborhoods" as well as the so called "bad neighborhoods", you see tourist areas as well as authentic areas of New York. I love the variety of people you meet from all over the world living here or not living here.
I like people. I don't know if that's specific to New York but I've just been living here all my life."

"Lately I'm getting more impatient with the city. Probably because I'm leaving soon. If you drive your car there are always people trying to come in front of you. They honk and shout. Using the train is not a lot better. People are pushing each other, they try to get a seat for every price. There are people using their cell phones, hving loud conversations, people throwing stuff on the ground and people begging for money. Everybody seems to only think about theirselfs. They think everybody has to slow down and get out of their ways. It's not relaxing anymore."

In about two weeks time Victor will be moving to Vienna for a year. Moving to Vienna heh... Why is this guy moving to Vienna? Guess why... Because of the Viennese "Krapfen" (something like crullers) and because of a girl.

Victor and Monika met in New York City while Monika was still living there. She is from Vienna originally and moved back to her hometown about one year ago.
So what are Victors expectations to Vienna?

"I just want to experience living in a foreign country. I want to meet new people and get to know the people I already met in Vienna better. Developing friendships. I guess I'll be really relaxed in Vienna. You don't always have to be on guard like in New York. I never felt any danger or threat in Vienna. And the customer service in Vienna is a lot nicer then it is in New York. People are a lot friendlier in stores over there..."

Monika and me had to contradict at least for this last part regarding customer service. (See more Victor here.)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:42 PM | Comments (4)

First day in Vienna - Hanging out

My first day in Vienna is nearly over. I spend the day hanging out with my girfriend Karin (in the picture above) and her son Fabian. We had breakfast in Viennas "Augarten" a big park in the second district and went to Viennas old amusing park the "Prater".

Getting out of the apartment this morning (well we left at about 12:00) was kind of strange. I first thought it was Sunday morning because there was nothing going on on the streets until I realized it was Tuesday... Compared to New York the streets of Vienna are so empty. Everything is smaller and older. You can see more trees on the streets and I immediatly noticed the Viennese unkindliness as well which I didn't miss at all. A lot of people run around grouchy and if you start to speak to someone you don't know on the streets they will most likely look at you as if you'd be crazy. While in New York I heard a couple of times that New Yorkers are known to be a rather unfriendly folk within the US. Compared to a lot of people in Vienna this is nothing.

Well it might just be me, it might be my approach to my hometown but I am sure there is truth within. My girlfriend also noticed that behavior. I am going to think about this a little more. Would like to know why this is so different. Let's see what day two of my home vacation brings.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 05:37 PM | Comments (5)

Half time arrival in Vienna

After a 13 hours trip (from New York to London and from London to Vienna) I finally arrived at home. I am tired (couldn't sleep on the plance since there is not enough space left for a big guy like me to sit comfortable) and how else should it be my baggage didn't arrive.
The flight coming from New York was late and I only had 5 minutes to get on the second plane to Vienna. Of course that's not enough time to unload an airplane and put the stuff into another one. It's nice to be home again, seeing my girlfriend, her son Fabian and our two lovely cats.

I don't have plans yet for the next couple of days, let's see what the first day in Vienna brings. Go to bed now, more tomorrow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:31 PM | Comments (6)

Sun slit in Midtown Manhattan

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (10)

Magnum Photos New York Company Outing

Today was the day of going to the Hamptons! Thomas Hoepker, German Magnum photographer and president of the co-operative, invited the entire office to come over to his house in the Hamptons for a nice day off.

Situated on a very nice and huge lake in the middle of Long Island we had a great day of relaxation, hanging around, swimming and kayaking in the pretty warm water on Thomas realty. We had a nice barbecue and drinks, got the chance to meet Dennis Stock, Elliott Erwitt and Burt Glinn. And it was also a good possibility to get to know each other better. Since most interns only work two days a week it's not always easy to get to talk longer.

I talked with Dennis Stock about his famous image of James Dean on Times Square. I wanted to know if he is kind of annoyed to see his image on posters, shirts, mugs and a lot of other stuff sold to tourists around the world or if it somehow makes him happy to see his iconic image on evey corner. We ended up talking about the James Dean community in which he is sort of a personality, licensing images, finding out about abusive use of his photographs, a meeting with Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein, finding original contact sheets of him on e-bay and his 2 and a half year old dog Ty. An interesting conversation...

Frankly, the day was not like a day you spend together with co-workers but much more like a day you spend hanging out with friends. Yeah, the Magnum Photos staff rules!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:38 PM | Comments (4)

A Giant grabbing a couple on 5th Avenue in Manhattan

I had the day off to get out and shoot a little. I took the train to 59th Street, stayed between 59th Street and 55th Street on Park Avenue for a while to photograph people (that's were the above shot was taken), and then walked all the way down to Brooklyn Bridge to go to the Empire Fulton Ferry Park to take some shots of "Movies with a view". That's an open air cinema under Brooklyn Bridge showing a different film every Thursday up to August 25. Nice view onto Manhattan of course.

When I came there a park ranger approached me to ask what the purpose of my photos is. I asked him if it's some sort of a security concern because of the bridges. They don't really like people taking pictures of them. Before I was able to answer his question he told me that this has nothing to do with securtiy. But "since I am not in New York City anymore the rules are a little different." Stop here... What meand I am not in New York City anymore. I just went over the Brooklyn Bridge... He told me that I left NYC after crossing the border to the Empire Fulton Ferry Park because it's a State Park and therefore I am in New York State. If I want to photograph there for business purpose or to build up a Portfolio I have to get a permission first. He asked who will see these photographs beside me and I told him that my friends and family will see them probably. That was alright for him and for me as well since I didn't have to lie. All the visitors of my website are my friends... ;-)

Anyway, I am really tired now, I don't really take the time to relaxe and am therefore looking forward to tomorrow. The Magnum staff will meet in front of the office to get on a Van and drive to the Hamptons. Thomas Hoepker (Magnum Photographer and at the moment president of Magnum Photos) lives there and invited the staff to come over for a day. Relaxing, hanging out on the lake, having fun... I am sure it will be a fun day.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:47 PM | Comments (9)

Prospecting for girls in El Barrio

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

Street Scene on Grand Concourse in the Bronx

There's a lot details in this shot so you might want to take a look at a bigger version by clicking on the photo.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:57 PM | Comments (6)

Parada Dominicana del Bronx (or "Bump N' Grind Baby")

Yesterday I went to the Bronx Dominican Day Parade on Grand Concourse. After working the whole weekend I was looking forward to getting out and shoot a little. I took the bus from Co-Op City to Grand Concourse and walked down the road up to were the parade started. I honestly was a little disapointed by the beginning since there haven't been that many people. They got more the further down we got but compared to the big parades on 5th Avenue in Manhattan it stayed rather quiet of course.

I sneaked into the parade again at a gate where the police officer didn't watch and walked all the way down to the Yankee Stadium. What I found most interesting about this parade was observing the young people again, probably between the age of 15 to 25, being out there on the prowl looking to meet girls and boys. As I once mentioned in my post about the 116th Street Festival the way teenagers act in these situations is different to teenagers in Austria. It's much more direct. I got the feeling that getting out there, watching girls or boys, dancing with them in a very intimate way is one of the main reasons for young people to go there. Like R. Kelly sings in one of his songs: "I don't see nothing wrong with a little Bump N' Grind". The hormones can lead to truly chaotic scenes where boys see girls standing on the side of the parade, they run there, start to shake and probably lift them over the fence to have space to dance.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:08 PM | Comments (6)

A gallery afternoon in Williamsburg

So what the hell has this guy to do with galleries in Williamsburg? He is carrying a bedstead... Well, he's an artist preparing his exhibition opening in one of the many Williamsburg galleries. The bedstead will be part of it.

Claudine, the Magnum In Motion Creative Director (see Claudine here) and me decided to leave the office and the computers behind this afternoon. We wanted to get out and change our environment looking at some galleries to get inspired.
Alright, first of all I have to say that I am generally not a big gallery visitor (apart from photo galleries) since I often can't do anything with modern art. Of course this is one of my prejudices. And of course I often see modern art (what the hell is modern art?) which I like and which I enjoy viewing. It depends on what I am able to see in those paintings, sculptures or whatever. But that's the same with photography. I don't like all sorts of photographies, I have my likings and dislikings there as well. I should probably overcome my biased attitude more often and get out to learn from what I see.

However. Before leaving the office we printed out a map of the Williamsburg Gallery Association and headed over to Brooklyn with the L train. We have been visiting a couple of galleries, some of them were quite nice, others haven't been so spectacular. We had a relaxing afternoon anyway and Williamsburg seems to be really nice! The bad thing about Williamsburg is that it got very hip in the last couple of years and the real estate prices are in enormous heights. Claudine and her boyfriend live in Chelsea at the moment and would like to move out to find a nicer place. When passing by one of those signs stating "Apartment For Rent" we just called the phone number of the agent. Five minutes later he was here and showed it to us. It was a rather nice two bedroom apartment, one living rom, a nice kitchen, a small bathroom and a backyard which would only be used by this apartment. And the rent for it is USD 3.300,-...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:03 PM | Comments (2)

Uncle Sam, the man with the big hat

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:14 PM | Comments (7)

Thomas in his Ford Pickup Truck and Lauren next to it

These two images are still from my weekend in Upstate New York. The first image shows my friend Thomas in the rear mirror if this old Pickup Truck and the second one shows him speaking with his relative Lauren. You can read more about his search for relatives in yesterdays post.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:45 PM | Comments (6)

Thomas Eickhoff on the traces of his family

I met Thomas back in 2001 when I started working for an advertisement company in Vienna were he was a copywriter. Originally from Germany he was then living in Vienna because of his former girfriend. We both shared some passions like our love for Portugal, we've got very similar views of a lot of things, I guess you could say our minds work rather similar in a lot of ways. We enjoy and appreciate similar things. So we got very good friends over the time. Although Thomas no longer lives in Vienna we still stay in touch, we write e-mails once in a while, talk on the phone and see each other two or three times a year. Having a good friendship does not necessarily mean sticking together all the time.

So I met Thomas again last weekend were I visited him in Margaretville. The photograph above shows him sitting in the living room of Laurens farm. Lauren is the cousin of his granduncles sister-in-law. Thomas travelled to Upstate New York to meet more parts of his family which he didn't know until last year. Kind of an interesting story but I'll, as an exception, let Thomas write about it today:

"In 1929 my granduncle Phillip – brother of my grandmother Katharina – left Germany and emigrated to the United States. At that time he was 19 years old. Arriving in New York City right at the beginning of the big depression, he somehow managed to get a job at Schrafft’s and worked his way up to be the head cake designer of this formerly very well known big bakery, which also ran a couple of good restaurants all over the American East Coast.

A few years later he met Mabel – a young lady from Margaretville, a little village in the Catskill mountains. They fell in love, married and 1932 their daughter Phyllis was born. Phillip stayed in contact with his family back in Germany over many years by writing letters and sending money, thus supporting them during the difficult times of WWII and after. In the 1960s, the letters suddenly stopped. My grandmother Katharina never got to know what happened to Phillip. The worries about her brother stuck to her over all those years, until in 1999 she asked me to do some research on his whereabouts.

After "googling" around for quite a while I finally got a hold of the family of Phillip’s wife Mabel, some of which are still living here in Margaretville. Phillip, Mabel and Phyllis used to come up to the Catskills on the summer weekends, leaving the hot and humid city behind. In the 60s, Mabel became ill and died of cancer after a long suffering. After her funeral on the Margaretville cemetery, Phillip went back to his house in NYC and never returned to the Catskills, although a lot of his family members up here tried to get hold of him. In the 1970s, neighbors discovered his body in his apartment – he obviously had never been the same after his wife had passed away. His daughter Phyllis arranged his funeral in Margaretville – and shortly after that she left for California, leaving no address or other traces behind.

I met my American family last year for the first time, when I was looking them up while being in New York. Apart from a lot of distant, yet wonderful family members I met Berna, Phillip’s sister-in-law, and Lauren, Berna’s cousin, who’s running his family farm in Margaretville. This summer I’m staying at Lauren’s and helping him out on the farm. My mother and aunt – my grandmother’s daughters and Phillip’s nices, that is – and my uncle from Germany have just left after a three week visit to their “old/new” American relatives. It was very emotional and I still have no words for the wonderful things that happened to all of us. All I can say is that I have a deep feeling of joy and gratitude, that our two families have been united after all those years. I consider it an honor and a very special gift."

Guest author Thomas Eickhoff

I'd be interested in your comments on this story. Leave them on this site or send Thomas an e-mail.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:19 PM | Comments (3)

Waiting on Broadway and 8th Street

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A man on 116th Street in Spanish Harlem

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Refocusing and relaxing this weekend in Upstate New York

My friend Thomas, a copywriter from Germany, is on vacation in the US at the moment. He already arrived about 8 weeks ago and spend his first weeks with a part of his family in Margaretville (which is about 4 hours drive north from New York City) working on their farm.
Thomas came to visit me in New York three days ago. He planed to stay for a week but left after his first day in New York to go back to Margaretville. He just couldn't stand the hectic life and the people in the city. It was kind of weired to see him reacting that way on New York because he is usually not the sort of person who is pissed of in such a way.

My friend told me about this small town of Margaretville with it's 600 inhabitants, the life in it and on the countryside. He got used to this mentality and the nature there so much that he didn't want to loose the energy he build up in these last weeks by having to deal with the New York way of life.

Anyway, I decided to visit him this weekend to see for myself. Since I have only been to New York within the States I am very curious to see such a small town in the countryside. And I guess a little break from all my "duties" won't hurt. I'll use this weekend to relax, hang out with Thomas and I somehow want to sort and clear my mind again. Looking back on what I did in the last 2 and a half months. Kind of a stopover to make sure my focus and my goals are set in the right direction. Thinking about which goals I have for my last three and a half months here and how to achieve them. Man, I hope two days will be enough for that. ;-)

I'll take the Greyhound bus from the Port Authority Bus Terminal at 10:00 am and will arrive in Margaretville at about 01:30 pm. Let the rythm flow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:09 PM | Comments (2)

First reactions on the London terror attacks in New York

As I was riding the subway to work this morning there was something different. I noticed policemen standing at the subway stations in the Bronx. Usually there are no policemen visible. I thought that they might look for someone or have some sort of a campaign for commuters to feel safer on the subway (although I never feel unsafe on it).

I then didn't know about the terror attacks that took place in London today. I heard about it as soon as I came into the office of Magnum were I read the online edition of newspapers and talked to a co-worker of mine who had just arrived from London 6 hours ago. All of her friends and family are alright.

What I found interesting was the fact that nobody either seemed to know about what happend while on the train or they just didn't feel uncomfortable. While getting lunch I was walking through the streets of Chelsea a bit and observed the people. Nothing special... While going home by subway I observed the people again and tried to notice a difference in their behavior but I couldn't find any. I didn't even hear people talking about it, newspapers haven't yet reported about it. I had expected to see, feel or hear a difference in New York daily life since the attacks on the World Trade Center are still very present in peoples lifes.

My experience stands in total contradiction to this New York Times article which describes it completely different. I might just not have the right feeling for the behavior of New Yorkers after only 2 and a half months of my stay here.

(The photo above was actually not taken today but last weekend. I choose it because I think it is a very moody image, well and probably one which has been seen quite often. But anyway...)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:56 PM | Comments (1)

People on the sidewalk

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:18 PM | Comments (3)

More photos of the Gay Pride Parade 2005

More photographs of the great Gay Pride Parade 2005 last Sunday in New York.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:39 PM | Comments (4)

A city of love: The Gay Pride Parade for Equal rights

This years Gay Pride Parade (now officially called Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March) in New York City took place this Sunday and was a hell of a party. I really liked the Puerto Rican Day Parade a couple of weeks ago. It was good fun and the temper was high. But the Gay Pride Parade was even more exiting! You could even say "Love is in the air. Everywhere I look around. Love is in the air. Every sight and every sound" (Lyrics of John Paul Youngs song). Well of course it's not only about love and fun but also about those who suffer from discrimination and HIV. This years theme for the parade was "Equal rights, no more no less."

One of the things I liked most about the march have been the spectators. The Gay Pride Parade started on 52nd Street, went down to 8th Street, turned right and went over onto Christopher Street. I started around 46th Street, the mood was good, observers seamed 5th Avenue. But the further you came down the more people where standing on both sides of the street watching the parade passing by, waving with banners and rainbow flags, screaming and applauding.
And let me tell you, there was enough to applaud to. Different organizations, politicians and groups marched to show their support and work for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. There have been colorful dressed up drag-queens, muscular cowboys, beer bellied country fans, hot women, war veterans, firefighters and police officers marching in the parade... Yes, police didn't only patrol the streets, uniformed police officers carried a banner for the "Gay Officers Action League" and marched. Could you imagin gay police officers in Austria wearing a rainbow flag? Could you imagine them speaking out publicly? I can't. Well, that's New York baby.

The shot of the day
Unfortunatly (damn!) I missed the shot of the day because my memory card just transfered the last 230 photos onto a portable harddisk...
There was a truck of Absolut Vodka (there is commerce in all those parades) with dancers on it in the parade. It was lead by two really hot girls who did amazing things with their "hula hoops". Just a few feet before the end of the parade one of those girls went over to a group of police officers to persuade one of them to come and try the hula hoop. As I already thought, this policeman just shook his head and said no. BUT the girl was intractable and finally persuaded another of these police officers. He stepped forward and took the hoop. The crowd on each side of the street (since that was just a few feet away of the parades end there have been sooo many people) started to scream enthusiastically and gave this police officer a big applause after trying it. That's New York as well. :-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:43 PM | Comments (6)

Billy Grahams Greater New York Crusade Part II

As I mentioned yesterday already I've been a little tricky to get access to areas I normaly wouldn't be allowed to go without a press pass. I did that at Billy Grahams Crusade in Queens and I did that at the Gay Pride Parade in Manhatten today. I've postponed this little story to tomorrow together with photos of todays parade.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:45 PM | Comments (2)

Billy Grahams Greater New York Crusade Part I

Today was the second evening of Billy Grahams Greater New York Crusade to which more than 80.000 people came as organizers estimated. Graham is 86 years old. He suffers from fluid on the brain, prostate cancer and the Parkinson's disease. This will be his last crusade in the United States. Beside those thousands and thousands of evangelic prayers political notables such as President Clinton, Senator Hillary Clinton or New York Citys Mayors Michael R. Bloomberg attended.

It was quite interesting to see how this crusade (kind of a strange term for this event) took place and which people attended. Personally I don't see myself as a very religious person. The catholic church (that's how I grew up) in Europe is just too conservativ and grim. But there is a much broader variety of churches with different approaches in America. I can just say that I saw and heared certain kinds of enthusiasm and conservative views (in another way than those in Europe) this evening that appear to be a little too much for me. Since this is my personal opinion and I honestly don't have that much to say about religion I am going to post my personal approach to this rally tomorrow together with some more photographs. I've been a little tricky to get access to areas I normaly wouldn't be allowed to go without a press pass. I guess that might be a entertaining story for you.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:20 PM | Comments (1)

Smoke on Lexington Avenue

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:48 PM | Comments (2)

Two men on 5th Avenue

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:54 PM | Comments (23)

A rooftop movie night

Since Magda (a co-worker at Magnum) and Ian (her husband) have to move from their appartment in Manhatten to a new one in Brooklyn they invited friends for the premier and the closing night of "Movies at 125".
Honestly, how cool is it to hang out on a New York City rooftop with friends watching movies projected onto an old wall? I find it damn cool! Meeting friends on the roof of an old Bowery based building, having drinks and snacks together, enjoying the light breeze up their and watching movies. We saw two movies by french director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. "City of Lost Children" and "The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain" (it's still such a wonderful fairy tale like story). People have been lying on blankets or sitting on small foldable chairs and benches. The structure and pattern of the wall we used for projection gave the movies a very pleasant and retro feeling.

This night on the roof was, to me, something typical about New York. New Yorkers just love their roofs although it seems to get harder and harder to get access. And the big difference between New York and Austria (or Europe) is that most buildings here have flat roofs which means that they can be perfectly used for barbecues, sunbaths, or movie nights. More and more landlords ban rooftop access because of the potential danger...

I guess it's even more speciall to people who have not been born in New York but who moved here. The atmosphere is just very unique if you get up on the roof after a day of hectic New York City life, feeling the air, listening to the sounds of the city and watching the sun going down. But those roofs aren't small green oasis with plants and garden furniture. The original roofs are just inlaid with tar papers. The so called "Tar Beaches" are one more sign of the adaptability and flexibility of New Yorkers. A characteristic I like.

You should also check out our party hosts websites. Magda who works at Magnum and is a photographer herself and Ian who is an illustrator.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:20 PM | Comments (7)

I love this game...

This evening I just hang out with my friend Victor, watchin the game, havin a Bud. It's kind of cool to be able to watch the NBA finals live on TV. I played a little basketball myself at school but I've never been good at it. I always enjoyed playing for fun but my joy got lost since the guys I used to play with took it kind of too serious. Standing around, never getting to play gets boring with the time.
Anyway, I still like basketball although I do not play it nor do I watch it regularly. But following the NBA finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the Detroit Pistons is stirring. The Pistons kind of sucked in their first two games which took Place in San Antonio. Coming home to Detroit everything changed and they started to play real good basketball. Good defence, wonderful offense and really nice moves. They won with 31 points ahead today! Man I love this game. It's so entertaining.

When I was in New York City for the first time (February 2004) I went to see the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden together with my girlfriend. Honestly it was not the best basketball I ever saw but it was for sure the best entertaining sports event I ever attended! It's not like going to a soccer match in Austria. Going to a NBA game is an evening full of fun. You get to see the (in this case) Mc Donalds childrens chorus singing the national anthem, you get to see cheerleaders jumping and fooling around, you get to see a BMX show in the break and of course there is one visitor choosen to try and make a basket from the midcourt. He didn't but if he would have done it, he'd won a brand new car... So it was a fun evening with my girlfriend back in February.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:52 PM | Comments (6)

Subway trains so crowded you could hardly stand in it

These are still some photographs I post of the aftermathes of the 116th Street Festival in Spanish Harlem this Saterday. The Bronx bound number 6 trains were so crowded that people could hardly stand in it. By that time it was raining heavily outside, but the party went on inside. Inside the trains... :-) Music, dances and loud singing have been companions for the commuters.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:49 PM | Comments (1)

Going down to the subway on 116th Street

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:46 PM | Comments (4)

Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City Part II

Christian Lehner from FM4 radio (Austrian Broadcast) just posted an article about the Puerto Rican Day Parade yesterday on his website. His story "Upper East Side vs. Spanish Harlem" is about the collective self-deception of a multicultural city as New York is. His article is unfortunately only available in German. By the way: He used some photos I shot at the parade and at the 116th Street Festival for this article.
I also found a very interesting article called "Why I no Longer Go to the Puerto Rican Day Parade" written by Robert Colón on the website of the NY Latino Journal. An article about the diversity of this parade and the historical relationship between Puerto Rico and the US.

More of my photos of this Sundays parade can be found here and photographs of this Saterdays festival in Spanish Harlem can be found here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:11 PM | Comments (7)

Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City Part I

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:55 PM | Comments (4)

Puerto Rican Festival in Spanish Harlem

I went to the 116th Street Festival in El Barrio (Spanish Harlem) today. A huge Puerto Rican festival just a day before the Puerto Rican Day Parade. It is one of the hugest Hispanic events in New York City. Thousands and thousands of people attended.
It's been a really crazy and interesting afternoon. There was Live Music, Dance Perfromances, Latin Food, Cocktails and of course all those interesting people on the streets. Some really good Latin Hip Hop over at the stand of AirWear NYC as well, some spontaneous dancing and break dancing on the street.

I started off by just walking around, looking at the people, nearly all of them have worn Puerto Rican shirts, flags, caps or necklaces. If you like tattoos this was the place to go as well. Men as well as women showed off nearly every part of their body if tattooed. Puerto Rican maps, letterings, dragons, flags, hearts, weapons and names could be seen. Some very interesting constelations of tatoos. Love tattooed one one hand, hate on the other for example. At the beginning I didn't feel that comfortable about taking pictures of all these young people. It's my prejudices again... Young people, a scowling view, tattoos, muscles, and groups of people. After walking around for a while I thought "What the hell..." and started to ask people if I can take their photograph. (As a note beside: Since this questions is often asked, I don't always ask for permission to take a picture. It depends on the situation.) And how else could it be, all of them have been happy to pose for me, most of them have been really interested in what I was doing, where I come from and how I enjoy the festival. No gang affection, no offends, just very nice people!
I started to get more and more comfortable, loving the fact that I meet so many interesting people with different backgrounds having one thing in common - enjoying the day, hanging out with friends, winding up girls or boys in a very direct but respectful way. So it's been a good place as well for boys showing off their hard masculin muscles and girls showing off their feminine bodies. Interesting to see how different these things are in New York compared to Austria. Everything is much more direct.
Check out nuyorica.com for upcoming Latino events in town.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:20 PM | Comments (11)

Fulton Fish Market Part III

These are two more pictures of my night at the Fulton Fish Market a week and a half ago. I actually wanted to go to the market again this night but since I had to work long this evening and there is a lot of work waiting for me at Magnum in the next two days I had to postpone this night... :-(
The first part of the Fulton Fish Market series can be found here and the second part here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:02 PM | Comments (3)

Sunday on the beach and at a parade

I desperatly wanted to got to the beach today. It really got hot and humid in New York over the last couple of days. So I just put my stuff together and went to the N train to get to Coney Island. What a joy to have all subways in the city air conditioned!

Before going to Coney Island I stopped by the "Salute to Israel Parade" on 5th Avenue. The sun was burning down on everyboy, I walked around a bit and took a couple of photographs before jumping on the train again.

Arriving on Coney Island was interesting as well. The crowds of people already started when coming out of the subway. I walked around the beach front for a while, stumbled through the amusement park of Coney Island watching people and entertainers trying to get visitors into "Freak" shows. Before I left I passed by a Puerto Rican band which played in front of the beach. Nice Latin music, good vibrations, people dancing on the boardwalk and Puerto Rican flags everywhere. Well, the Puerto Rican Day Parade is coming closer and closer. If you are in New York check it out next Sunday between 44th and 86th street on 5th Avenue.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:54 PM | Comments (4)

Puerto Rican afternoon on East 10th street

I met Christian Lehner, the Austrian correspondent for FM4 (Austrian broadcast) this afternoon. We hang out in Tomkins Square Park talking about a lot of things. It was a quite nice and interesting meeting with him.
Afterwards I went on walking on 10th street until I met Evelyn Rodriguez. A in New York born Puerto Rican woman who was selling Puerto Rican flags, shirts and accessories. She was sitting with Puerto Rican friends on some folding chairs in the shadow of a tree on the street. Spanish music came out of a Radio, people stopped by, started to dance or just exchanged the latest gossip.
Mrs. Rodriguez told me that she did the painting (she is posing next to it in the first picture) herself about two years ago. They always use it when they do their block parties. The area around East 10th street is a rather Puerto Rican dominated area. A lot of Puerto Rican flags can be seen in windows, shops, on bicycles or flying on cars. People talk spanish everywhere and everyone seems to come together on the street on a sunny day. People take their music with them everywhere. Music comes out of shops, of cars and a lot of bicycles I saw had their own ghetto blaster fastend on them. Music is very important for Evelyn Rodriguez and her friends. It brings you in a good mood and problems become minor matters.
Next Sunday will be the Puerto Rican Day Parade in Manhatten. I'll definetly go there. It is promised to be one huge party with spanish music, food and dances.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Noon on 6th Avenue

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:56 PM | Comments (1)

Leapfrog in Brooklyn

I actually took this picture last Sunday when I went to Brooklyn to see the Dance Africa Festival at BAM. The boy was running around the street when I saw him. I got my camera up while he started to run to a hydrant jumping over it. Three frames later the boys father called him to stop.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:25 PM | Comments (2)

Todays Magnum In Motion Meeting

To give you a better insight into my work at Magnum Photos I am posting some photos of todays weekly meeting of the Magnum In Motion team.
Magnum In Motion is a department of Magnum Photos found about a year ago in New York City. The Magnum In Motion team is responsible for all kinds of New Media work within Magnum. Its focus lies on digital storytelling. To give you a good example of what our teams does you might want to take a look at the last online-feature Magnum In Motion did. It's a multimedia story with photographs and comments by Magnum photographer Philip Jones Griffiths about Vietnam at Peace. It was published on the websites of "The New York Times" and the "International Herald Tribune". A really interesting and worthwhile experience.
Our team (in which I feel rather integrated already) works on more very, very interesting projects. Unfortunately I can, at this point, not give any details on them... The competitors could read this blog as well... :-)

The pictures above show our weekly meeting in which we discuss queued to do's for the week. The first picture shows Claudine Boeglin, Bjarke "BJ" Myrthu and another intern (well the back of him) Guillaume. We are holding this meetings in the backoffice area of the office which is also a nice place to sit down, drink a coffee or eat your lunch.
The folders which can be seen in the background contain some of the probably most interesting things in the office. All contact sheets of the photographers which belong to the New York City office of Magnum. Kind of a magical ressource.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:37 PM | Comments (9)

Memorial Day Service in Co-Op City

I started my day off by calling my girlfriend to wish her a happy birthday! We've been talking for a while and finally used our webcam for the first time. These services suck! Calling using Skype works pretty well. As soon as you want to use another service like Yahoo Mesenger to use a webcam as well everything gets a mess. But still funny to see the other one on a small window on your screen even if it's most of the time like a tableau.

I attended the Memorial Day Service in Co-Op's City veterans memorial park later. Memorial Day is a patriotic holiday in the United States. A day to honor and remember Americans who gave their lives while serving the U.S. in a war.
Kind of strange for me to see how people celebrate the fallen soldiers, to hear different kinds of hymns and battle songs, to hear speeches where people talk about their heros, about the brave men and women who serve their country. Speeches where they talk about freedom and democracy, where they state that freedom is not free...
Rather strange and way too much patriotism in my European eyes. But as far as things are not only black and white, as always there is another side as well.

I met Mrs. Carmen Raquel Natal at the Memorial service, an elderly woman living in Co-Op City. She was visibly touched by the ceremony. I started to talk to her and she told me that her grandson who can be seen on the photo standing together with his father and herself is in Iraq at the moment. Efraim Luis Natal is 23 years old. He has been in Iraq for one and a half years already, intermitted by one vacation at home. He got a two months old daughter he didn't yet see because she was born while he was away.
I guess it's hard to form an opinion about something like these patriotic acts as long as there are people like Mrs. Natal who have a beloved one in a war or who lost a family member there. Who knows how I'd act if I came into such a situation myself.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:51 PM | Comments (2)

Tasty and fresh - Fulton Fish Market Part II

Two more shots from my night at the Fulton Fish Market. See others and some information on the market in the previous post.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:36 PM | Comments (4)

Tasty and fresh - Fulton Fish Market Part I

I visited the Fulton Fish Market for the first time in June 2004 and now for the second time yesterday night. I like the atmosphere of fish markets so much, I like the smell (yes I do - as long as I can get rid of it later) and most of all I find the people who are working there so interesting. The way you can see how hard work over a lot of years left tracks in peoples faces, the way you get to hear shouts, laughs and sometimes offensice comments from one salesman to the other. It's interesting to see how trading is going on.

The Fulton Fish Market was opend on February 5th in 1822. Its final weeks broach in its 184th year of existance. The Fish Market on Fulton street, very close to the Brooklyn Bridge is to be moved to a new location at the Hunts Point Market in the Bronx. The move there was first scheduled for January, was then displaced to June and will now take place in September as Ziggy Galarza, a salesman at one of the many fish companies told me.

Even tough the Fulton Fish Market is most likely the oldest place in New York that's still doing the same thing as in its beginning, its told to be Americas largest Fish Market. More than 4.5 million pounds of fish moves through it each week.

Since I thought that the Fulton Fish Market would close in June I wanted to take the chance and go there one more time. So I left my apartment in the north east of the Bronx at about 01:30 in the morning, took the bus to Pelham Bay Park, went to 125th street where Markus Hartel, a German photographer living in New York, picked me up to go there. I had a good night at the market and since I heard that it will remain there until September I'll definitely come back.

I got the morning off work today to be able to go back to my partment, take a shower and change cloths. The cloths smell awfull, I had the smell of fish in my nose for quite a few hours although it must have been imagination... But what I can say for sure (its been affirmed by a colleague) is that my camera body still has a touch of fish on it.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:23 PM | Comments (6)

Woman waiting for a cab on 5th Avenue

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A couple with their baby on the 4 train

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:27 PM | Comments (5)

Shadows of buisy people

Since my last two posts have been color photography I needed to post a black and white photo again. I do not feel very comfortable using color in my pictures. It doesn't mean I don't like color, I just personally find it very hard to do good looking color shots. I admire good color photography like the ones of Alex Webb who does not only do beautifull color photography but also has a very unique style. He is of course only one example that just came to my mind.

Since I had a realy nice and relaxing week with my girlfriend I will now focus more on my own photography again. Just updated my list of possible topics I want to work on. There is so much to do... Oh and yes the above photograph is dark. It's meant to be!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:51 PM | Comments (3)

Star Wars Line Up at the Ziegfeld Theater

These are pictures from the Star Wars Line Up in front of the Ziegfeld Thater in Manhatten. About 250 people from 9 different countries have been waiting there for the last 19 days to raise money for the Starlight-Starbright Children's Foundation. Yesterday evening was the final line up to see the premiere of Episode III. Check out more information on the Star Wars Line Up in New York City at nyline.org.
It was quite interesting to see so many people waiting to see a Star Wars movie. My girlfriend Karin enjoyed it although she is a little sad she couldn't see it... Her son Fabian saw the movie already about 10 hours before Star Wars fans in America were able to. The premiere was on May 18th at 8:00 pm in Vienna.
I'll have a day off work tomorrow. Enjoying the last three days of my girlfriends visit!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:01 PM | Comments (10)

Election day in Co-Op City

Today was the long awaited election day in Co-Op City. There are 5 people to be elected for the Co-Op City Board of Directors. Every Co-Op City resident is allowed to vote for his or her favourite candidate in a voting booth located in the lobby. There is one voting booth in all 35 buildings of Co-Op City. And they look really weired, seem to be from the 70ties... To make sure the elections are held correctly there must be an election worker from both parties, from the Democrats as well as from the Republicans, present at all time.

It's a day for which I've already been waiting since I arrived in New York. The special thing about these elections are the election campaigns held in the forefield. Never saw such dirty and shallow campaigns full of attacks. The campaign flyers which have always been shoved under the appartments door did not only attack the competitive political party but they attacked certain persons personally in a very uneloquent way. I kept all these flyers I got for future references... :-) I don't yet know who did it, but I've been told that this is not really important since things never change.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:58 PM | Comments (1)

My girlfriend in New York - First Evening

My girlfriend Karin arrived yesterday evening to visit me in New York for a week!
While I had to get up at 7:00am to get to work in time, Karin could sleep untio 1:00pm. How lucky she is... She visited me at work in the afternoon, I showed her around the Magnum office and we had lunch at this good Cuban restaurant (already mentioned in an earlier post) on the other side of the street. Back to work for me, Karin went downtown for a little shopping tour in SoHo (of course she didn't buy a lot... well... not that much... well...).

We met in front of the Empire State Building after work to get on to the observatory platform viewing New York from above. We went to Starbucks, having a coffee and a Lemon Cake before lining up to get our tickets. We finally got them and made our way to a room through which all visitors are planted to get their picture taken in front of a ugly "Empire State Building Wallpaper". You are not allowed to use your camera in their, but you may of course purchase this photo after going down again for 13 bucks. However, I took a picture of us while they were taking ours. They started to get a little nervous but let us do anyway.

The two pictures above show the northern view (Thanks for correcting me David) from the top of the Empire State Building and the two of us posing for a self-portrait.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:52 PM | Comments (10)

20th Annual AIDS Walk New York Part 1

About 45.000 people have been walking a 10 kilometer (6.2 miles) course in New Yorks Central Park today to raise funds for different Aids Service Organizations. The weather was not that good, the spirits and the mood certainly was!
The picture above shows participants of this years 20th Annual Aids Walk in New York City after finishing the course.
I will post more informations and photos of todays event in a couple of days. Have to pick my girlfriend up from JFK Airport now. She comes to visit me for a week! :-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:05 PM | Comments (3)

Posing for a photo inside the Empire State Building

Since I really needed to get my hair cut I went to a barber on Astor Place which was recommended by Victor, the friend I am staying with. If you stand in front of the shop there are steps going down to the basement level which is a huge room in which approximately 50 barbers work. They allow you to walk around watching the barbers doing there work and pick the one you like best. Or you can just ask who is free at the moment and take him as I did. José was the one who cut my hair, a friendly man around 35, came from Cuba to New York when he was 2 years old. He worked fast, good and prices are very cheap. I only had to pay 13 dollars for my hair cut.

After that I wanted to get on to the observation platform from the Empire State Building. Looking at the city from above... Since there was a long line waiting to get up and the usual time until you reache the top is about 60 to 75 minutes I changed my mind and spend this time watching tourists taking pictures. Interesting pastime. The man on the photo poses to get his picture taken in front of the american flag and a model of the Empire State Building.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:27 PM | Comments (3)

New York Photobloggers Meetup last evening

I went to a meeting of New York City Photobloggers last evening. It was good fun and I met a lot of people. After havin a drink or two in a bar on the Lower East Side we went to one of New York's most famous delis. The "Katz's Deli" which looks rather interesting and food seems to be excellent. Enjoy some photos of yesterday evening.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:37 PM | Comments (6)

Tourists snapping pictures on Times Square

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:18 PM | Comments (3)

Family portrait in the subway station on 125th Street

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:11 PM | Comments (3)

Playing chess in Washington Square Park

As mentioned in my last post I've been around Washington Square Park this weekend. When I came to the south east part of the park I saw quite a few people there playing chess. Most of them have been playing speed-chess against the clock. And there was one man playing chess with a boy who might have been about 10 years old. He didn't use a clock. I stopped and watched them playing two games before I asked to take some pictures. The boy's father came over while the third game was going on. They have been french tourists and already came there the day before to play chess with this guy called Norman.

After the game finished I introduced myself to the man sitting on this small bench. We where talking for a while and Norman told me that he comes to the park every weekend, usually very early in the morning to try and catch his favourite table. Competitors are tough.
Norman told me that he's trying to make a few bucks through the game. He doesn't like speed-chess, he rather wants to teach chess. And if he loses a game he doesn't charge for it since he was not able to teach his students.
Norman is 58 and originaly came from Louisiana to New York. His parents moved here when he was still a kid. He asked me if I'd like to play a game of chess with him. I had to reject since I don't know how to play chess at all. He showed me the basic moves and I told him to come back next weekend to have my first lesson.

The following photographs show other people playing chess in Washington Square Park.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:26 PM | Comments (7)

Getting up and out of the subway

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New York Subway Photos

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:15 PM | Comments (3)

Mayday rally and march on Union Square

I originaly wanted to attend the Mayday Festival in Tomkins Square Park on the Eastside. When I got out of the train on Union Square I saw a whole bunch of people with transparents standing around waiting for the Mayday marchers to come.

Speakers included labor leaders, community organizers, immigrant workers, international solidarity activists, youth, veterans and military resisters.

After speeches ended heated discussions started with a small group of counter-demonstrators who called themselfes the "Protest Warriors". They want to "fight the left, doing it right" as stated on their website.

More photos and text in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Mayday rally and march on Union Square"

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:46 PM | Comments (3)

Joe the man who's picture was taken a thousand times

I met Joe today on Union Sqaure while taking pictures of the Mayday parade and protest march. After photographing a transparent lying on the ground just a few feet away from him he waved me to come over and just said: "You took my picture". I sat down on the ground next to him and told him that I was just taking a photo of that sign over there. He didn't realy believe me. One of the good things of shooting digital is that you have the possibility to show people the pictures you took on that little screen. I convinced him of the fact that I didn't take his picture and offert him a cigarette.

We where smoking this cigarett together and started to talk. He told me that everybody want's to take pictures of him. He has been photographed a thousend times already. People from the press took pictures of him, people who did books took pictures of him and tourists took pictures of him. Joe told me that he'd like to get some money if people use his photos to earn money theirselfs. Two lesbian women invited him once to their appartment in the East Village to take nude photos of him. He told me that he has no problem standing in the middle of the street getting naked and being photographed. He just didn't want to do that since he didn't want to get into troubles with the police.

We have been sitting on Union Square for about an hour and a half talking about our lifes. Joe worked in a Pizza restaurant originaly. He lost his job when they went bankrupt and was unable to find a new one. Joe told me about his wife and his father who died 10 years ago, we where talking about life on the street and about the opportunities homeless people have in New York to get a place to sleep and some food. Seems there are not many of them.

Suddenly he moved sidewards and pulled a sheet of paper out of his trousers, unfolded it and said: "Look this guy did also take my photo". Well there was Bruce Davidson's name written down. I told Joe that Bruce Davidson was a very famous photographer from the Magnum Photos agency and that he realy did a well known book about New Yorks subways. Joe never saw this book and he didn't meet Bruce Davidson. A Japanese girl once gave him this note and told him that he was in there. No matter if he is or not, he seemed happy to know that a famous photographer took a picture of him. He asked me if I would also take some photos of him, a thousand if I wanted to. I took a few frames and told him that I will get them printed for him. I might find Joe around Union Square. I should just give it a try...

I have to go to bed now, tomorrow will be my first day at Magnum. If you'd like to see some work of Bruce Davidson, the photographer mentioned above, visit his website here.
I'll be posting photos of the Mayday parade and protest march tomorrow.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:18 PM | Comments (10)

Saying hello to Magnum Photos

I will be starting my internship at Magnum Photos on Monday at 09:30am. Well I couldn't wait to see their office and meet the people until then and gave Claudine a call to ask if I could come over to say hello and to meet her and BJ in person for the first time. Claudine is the Creative Director of Magnum's new department "Magnum In Motion" which is responsible for storytelling with digital media. BJ is a very nice guy from Denmark working together with Claudine on different projects. I've been in contact with him and Mark Lubell, Magnum's New York City Bureau Chief, for most of the time before I came to New York.
You should by the way check out BJ's website at www.versionmyrthu.dk. There are some very good online documentary stories on his website. I especially like "The Enemy Within", a documentary about Russian war veterans.
So I took the bus from Co-Op City to Belham Bay Park, jumped on the 6 train to 59th Street, took the Q train to 28th Street and walked down to 25th Street where Magnum is located. Wow, this trip took about an hour and a half. I will try to figure a faster way out.

The building where Magnum is located is rather inconspicuous from the outside. I took the elevator to fifth floor, the door opend and there I was standing in the middle of the office. The first thing I mentioned have been different pictures of Magnum photographers on the walls, a big tabel with lot's and lot's of photobooks on it and a very friendly looking office space. Claudine and BJ welcomed me and I got kind of an office tour where I was introduced to some of the staff there. Well I can only say that I am sure I'll have a very interesting time there. There will be lot's of things to learn and see. After seeing the main office space BJ took me to Magnum's darkroom which is still used by some photographers. Some of them have their own darkroom where they work, some do rareley need one since they are working digital and some still work in the darkroom in Magnum's office space. Great to be in the darkroom where so many wonderful photographers have developed and printed so many wonderful photographies! :-)) After that we went a little further and stood in the middle of Magnum's archive. It looks like the archive I was thinking of. Shelves which go up to the ceiling with labelled storage boxes everywhere, metallically archive-cupboards with labelled drawers and portfolio folders around. The best thing: Since the Magnum In Motion department consisted of only two people up to now they need some more space for all of us and we will be moving onto a desk which will be standing in the middle of this archive. What a great place to work!

I left the office after half an hour since they had a meeting and headed up north to get back to my appartment in the Bronx. I will be having a relaxed weekend since I still have to get rid of my cold. More news to come soon...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:46 PM | Comments (6)