A new start with Journal Of A Photographer

I am back in New York and happy to inform you about the launch of my new website Journal Of A Photographer.

Journal Of A Photographer is a continuation of New York Photoblog. Similar design, slightly adapted and with extended content. It's a website dedicated to photojournalism and photography. You will not only find personal photographs and stories on my new site but also a continued series of audio interviews with renown photographers that should bring you insight views into their lifes. You'll find photography book reviews as well as tutorials on my workflow, photojournalism news, events and competitons and an extensive links section with sites related to photography and journalism.

I hope that you are going to enjoy Journal Of A Photographer at least as much as you enjoyed New York Photoblog! Thank's for your support!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 04:47 AM | Comments (3)

How a valuable contact emerges through a coincidence

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Last weekend I went through the old city center of Vienna together with my girlfriend and we came across the traditional and well known "Imperial and Royal Court Confectionary Bakery" Demel. They are master craftsman in doing small, or from time to time large, masterpieces with marzipan, sugar icing and chocolate. These pieces of art are then displayed in the shop window of the bakery which is mostly frequented by tourists.

What the bakery created this time was a marzipan replica of Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel who is dancing with Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik. Schüssel is dressed up like Mozart wearing a white wig made out of sugar and a red brocade robe. This is a tribute to two major Austrian long time events. The Austrian Presidency of the European Union and the "Mozart Year 2006". I found that pretty funny and just snapped four or five photos of it.

I know that I sometimes have a hard time to make a long story short, and from time to time I even make a short story long... I'll try to get to the point now:
Yesterday a good friend of mine who is a photographer herself forwarded an e-mail to me which was send out by one of the picture editors of "Die Zeit". That's a very good weekly newspaper from Germany that I enjoy reading myself. This picture editor was on the lookout for a photograph showing the described marzipan replicas of Schüssel and Plassnik for their next issue. They urgently needed it on the same day because of production deadlines. Well it's "Die Zeit", a pretty big name... Should I send those pictures I took or shouldn't I? I want to leave a good impression... I decided to send the photographs. I quickly converted the RAW files, color corrected the images and send them to the picture editor. At the same time I called to tell them that I just send an e-mail. The lady I was talking to looked at the images right away and told me that she can't really use them because of too many reflections in the window. I attached my contact details as well as my portfolio website martinfuchs.com to the e-mail I was sending her and she started to look at it. We've been talking about some of the photos, the internship I did at Magnum and upcoming projects. She was very friendly, generous with advice and she even said that she likes what she is seeing on my website. We should stay in touch... Sounds like a good first contact for me.

After the phone call I grabed my camera, made sure everything was in working order and drove to the city to take more photographs of these marzipan figures. This time more concentrated...

After shooting this nice couple from the inside and from the outside I called the picture desk from "Die Zeit" to ask if they still needed photographs. I've been told that they found an image already which is not exactly what they are looking for but they are working on the layout with it. If I am fast and have some decent shots I can still send them over and they'll look at them. I jumped into a cab, went home, downloaded the files onto my laptop, renamed all of them, selected three images, converted the RAW files, captioned everything and send them away.

Only three minutes later the lady I was talking to before called me back to tell me that these images are way better than the ones I send in the afternoon. She was just talking to the Art Director but the layout for the article is almost finished with this other image they where using before. She apologized, thanked me for my engagement and said: "Well, if these images just would have come a little earlier..."

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 12:22 PM | Comments (10)

Meeting with Federal President Dr. Heinz Fischer

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As i wrote in yesterdays post I've been photographing the meeting of the European Commission with the Austrian Government this week. These are pictures of President Fischer welcoming the members of the Euopean Commission in the premises of his office. That's what I call an office...

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 05:26 PM | Comments (1)

Getting Started 3: The European Commission in Vienna

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Austria took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the beginning of this year and will will chair all meetings of the Heads of State or Government and all Council meetings during the six months of its Presidency. A good possibility for me to do some work...

During the 6 months of Austrias Presidency of the Council of the European Union I want to photograph all major events that take place in Austria. But I will not only photograph the big events with important and known politicians but I do also want to photograph these small meetings, the conferences and so called expert meetings. I want to take a journalistic look behind the scenes showing every day life and bizarre situations at meetings and talks from European politicians and their work. My main goal is to have a small but nice selection of unique images of this period of time. Something a little different. Easier said than done perhaps...

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I started by photographing the first big event that took place in Vienna. A working meeting between the Austrian government and the European Commission on January 9th. Before getting there I needed media accredidation. They arranged a form for online accredidation where you have to fill in all your personal details, the number of your press card if you have one or a letter of credit from a medium you are working for.
Since this project should become a personal project and I wasn't assigned to cover these events I simple stated my press card which I got about two years ago when I was taking pictures for a small unpaid Vienna based magazine which comes out only four times a year. Unfortunately this wasn't enough for the officials and they asked me for a letter of credit. Hm, I might be assigned to cover one or two of these events from this newspaper "Falter" I started to photograph for but this is in no way certain and I therefore wouldn't get this letter from them. So I called the owner of the photo agency "Contrast" in Vienna to ask him if he needs a photographer to cover these events. We met before that already once after my return from New York to talk about the photojournalism scene in Austria. A friend of mine suggested to do so since Gerhard Hinterleitner is very friendly and broadminded with advice and help. So I told him about my problem and see there... He wrote a letter of credit for me to cover these events. I am not getting paid simply for photographing and sending pictures to them but if they see photos they like and put in their database I might have a chance to sell a couple of them.

With this letter I got my accredidation for all major events and off I went Monday morning to spend my day taking pictures of this working meeting between the Austrian Government and the European Commission. Well pictures of the working meeting... Not really. Of course press access was strictly limited to three occasions. The first one was a "family photo" of all participants, 5 minutes and it was over. The second one was a press conference with Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, the President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and their spokespersons. 30 minutes of talk in front of a boring white wall and it was over. And the third one was a meeting between Austrian President Heinz Fischer and the members of the European Commission. 5 minutes and it was over again.
No need to mention that all these photo opporunities began late, partly very late, up to over an hour later than expected.

So at the end of the day I shot about 400 photographs and I haven't really been happy with them. About a year and a half ago I photographed the funeral of former Austrian President Thomas Klestil and cardinal Franz König. I've been more happy with these pictures. But these have been different and visually more interesting environments as well. There was a possibility to get closer to the people and there have been much more people around. Not only politicians but by-standers and visitors. I did not have the chance for that on Monday. Everything was shut off.

So I came back with a bunch of press photos. Nothing really special but after editing through I did upload 42 of these images to the FTP server of "Contrast". And see there... They took 20 of these photos and put them in their database. You can check the selected photographs out if you go to the website of Contrast and type in "Martin Fuchs" in the search field on the left side. So up to now I created my portfolio, had meetings with photographers and newspapers, had my first assignments for the weekly newspaper "Falter" and the latest step so far is that I have the chance to sell some of my photographs through an Austrian photo agency.

Who knows, maybe somebody will buy one of these images. And though I am not totally happy with the pictures I took I'll continue to work on this project. I might have a better chance to get closer at these small conferences and meetings. Maybe there is less press hullabaloo going on.

By the way: Check out the photos Carl De Keyzer took at the 1997 World Economic Forum in Davos. After my fancy. :-)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:35 PM | Comments (4)

Getting Started 2: The first assignment

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In "Getting Started 1: Creating a portfolio / The Magnum job" I wrote about my plans with Magnum and how I created my portfolio. Today I'll let you know how things went on after I had my portfolio in hand.

The way to my first assignment

The first thing I did with my portfolio was to meet a friend of mine who is photographer as well. I met Felicitas Kruse for the first time about a year and a half ago when we were photographing the funeral of Austrian President Thomas Klestil who died two days before the end of his incumbency. We've been the only photographers with small film based cameras in a crowd of photographers with digital SLRs and long telephoto lenses... Anyway. Felicitas stopped to work as a photojournalist some months ago to dedicate her time to personal projects. Seemingly she decided for some reason to take care of me and my photographic career. Good for me. We've been talking about the situation for photographers in Austria, where to go, whom to approach, whom to meet and so on. She gave me a list of Names and contacts which I thankfully took.

First I called Heribert Corn, a photographer who is working a lot for Vienna's city newspaper "Falter" among others. "Falter" is a pretty good paper to start working for. They are political, write about topics other papers wouldn't write about, they have a wide distribution in Austria and they print the photographers credits as big as no other paper does.

I met Heribert Corn already once before my departure to New York about 8 months ago. I showed him my portfolio with old black and white photographs and asked him if there would be any chance for me to start working for "Falter". He liked it and said that we should give it a try. Well a week later I sat on the plane to New York and I didn't hear Heribert again for the next 8 months.

When I called him before Christmas he said that he was really happy that I called. Another photographer who followed my blog told him that I wouldn't come back to Vienna. Well I did and so we met the same day, I showed him my new portfolio, he liked it and told me that he'll call me once there is an assignment for me.

The first assignment

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Two days later (Friday) my cell phone rang in the afternoon and it was Heribert Corn with my first assignment. He told me about an article that was about to be published in the next issue of "Falter". An article about one of Europes largest and most modern logistics-centers for the distribution of packages by the post. The editor visited this center already before and needed a picture or two for the article. I was told that they needed images showing the size of the place, the packages and that it wouldn't be wrong to see workers on these images as well.

I called the contact I got from the post-office and wanted to arrange an appointment. Press date for the next "Falter" issue was Monday noon. So I had two and a half days left. Since there wasn't much going on in this logistics-center on the weekend I arranged to come over this evening. They told me that 6 p.m. was the best time to come since most packages arrive at that time.

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No sooner said than done! I was parking my car in front of this huge hall in the south of Vienna at 6 p.m., had my camera equipment ready and smoked one last cigarette before my first "real" assignment. Ok, I was nervous. I was really nervous. I knew that it shouldn't be too hard for me to deliver decent pictures for this half page article. I knew that the printing quality of the paper is poor and would therefore cover parts of bad pictures. But that's not what I wanted. I wanted to do a good job. Hey, it's my first assignment and I want to get further ones.

So I went inside the building and met the man who was responsible for the operations there. I asked him to show me around and explain me how everything works. After our trip around I told him that I would prefere to walk around myself to take some time to photograph. He agreed. So there I was standing in the middle of this huge hall, the machinery, the packages and about 80 people spread all over the place. I decided to start by walking around a little more. I wanted to talk to the clerks who worked there first in order to let them know what I was doing. My advantage was that I worked at a post office myself about 7 years ago. So I had something to start talking about. They've been a little suspicious in the beginning but opened up once we talked a little longer. Some of those people told me at the end that they've been really surprised that I actually took the time to talk to them and listen to the problems they have at work. A couple of photographers have been there before but they rushed in, took some pictures and left again.

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To make a long story short: I spend almost 7 hours there and took a whole bunch of pictures. Lightning conditions have been pretty damn bad. There was much halogen light coming from the ceilings but at the same time there was almost no light underneith the machinery where a lot of people worked. So contrasts have been high. I had to shoot with 1600 ISO and 1/15 to 1/60 of a second... Back home I downloaded all the RAW files onto my laptop and started to edit through.
No photos that I would put in my portfolio or onto my portfolio website but good enough for this job. The editor was happy although they would have prefered to have some more shots where one can actually see the size of this hall.

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And this is the article with my photograph that was published 5 days later. I would have choosen another image but that was not in my field of competence. And don't ask for the payment, you'd start to cry.

More news and more informations on what else was or is going on in a couple of days.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 07:24 PM | Comments (6)

The 2005 New York City Halloween Parade

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Honestly I am not able to write a good report about this years New York City Halloween Parade. I went down to the parades line up on Spring Street after work and started to walk around a little bit, snapping a couple if images. I believe that this parade was by far the most crowded one I've seen since I came to New York six months ago. All these crazy people with their - I have to say mostly boring costumes. Of course there have been fancy costumes as well but the majority was dressed up in the well known costumes. The costume I liked best of the ones I saw was a guy going as a family portrait. He had this huge picture frame with a family portrait showing a father, two boys and a mother. The mothers face was cut out and this guy put his head with a wig through that hole and was walking around like this. Pretty fancy isn't it? In contrast to that my costume was so lame! I went as a photographer...
I don't want to malign the Halloween parade, the mood was very good, people enjoyed theirselfs and had fun. Personally I had enough after about two hours of walking around. The big parades have lost their initial charm for me I guess. I am not the biggest fan of those large events with thousands and thousands of people sticking together.
Due to my departure in 12 days I have many things on my mind and much work waiting for me. I left and walked up to 23rd street where I catched the bus.

On my way up I ran into a guy with a very special costume: "Man, this dude did a great job with his costume! He totally looks like Bruce Gilden." Well it was Bruce Gilden together with his wife coming out of a restaurant. We stopped, his wife and me smoked a cigarette together, we talked a little bit and then they picked their daughter up from a Halloween party.

You can see some more photographs of New York streets on All Hallows Eve over on rion's site.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:58 PM | Comments (3)

A sex doll Halloween costume on the subway

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Times Square at night - Reflections in a window

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Girls hanging out in El Barrio

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42nd Street - Grand Central Station

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A cheesy sunset photograph from a Queens rooftop

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Last sunrays of the day

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Multimedia Gallery: Four Years Later - 9/11 Commemoration

A little over a month ago I went to photograph the commemoration event of the attacks on the World Trade Center at Ground Zero.

I arrived at Ground Zero at 07:30 a.m. on the morning of September 11th and stayed until 11:00 p.m. Not to photograph the official ceremony where about 640 siblings of those who died read the names of the 2.749 victims but to photograph the people who came to Lower Manhattan to mourn and remember.
It was an intense and from time to time touching day. This gallery might seem a little pathetic but that's how I experienced this day.

In addition to taking photographs I also recorded sound with my little Mini Disc player. It was not the first time I recorded sound but it's the first time I actually use it. Inspired by Magnum In Motion, MSNBC, The New York Times and some other websites who already build multimedia galleries for certain topics and stories, combining photographs with sound, I decided that it's time for me to do the same thing. I just think that sound and in this case original sound recorded the same day and the same place adds another dimension to a set of photographs.

I had to learn how to use sound editing software and had a hard time to tune the sound for the photographs. But the biggest part of the work for this multimedia gallery did a great friend of mine...
To make this project happen I needed somebody to help me out with the Flash programming. Me and Flash... Forget it. As so often my friend agreed to help me out and not only build the Flash file for it but he build a template which I can easily use again for other multimedia stories without the need to programm in Flash. Man, thanks a lot for this!

The complete feature takes 5 minutes and 32 seconds to view. If you do not have Flash installed or have a very slow internet connection you are also able to view the photographs as an HTML gallery by following the link at the bottom of the pop up.
Any comments and feedback on this multimedia gallery are highly appreciated. To see the other galleries I created (without sound) check out the Photosets section.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:38 PM | Comments (10)

A break on 136th Street in Harlem

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:40 PM | Comments (3)

I love New York in the rain

Basically it is raining in New York since last Saturday. There might be a couple of hours in between where the sky is just gray but I'd say for the most time of the day it's pouring down.
But let me tell you... I enjoy this weather at the moment. There wasn't really much rain in the last couple of months and a rainy New York has it's beautiful sides as well. I enjoy the somehow low temperature, I even went to buy a sweater and I even wear it. I went for a long walk in the rain this evening and I didn't really care about getting wet. It had something peaceful.

On the other hand side I have to say that I am thinking about whether I am a "good weather photographer" or not. Honestly I have to say that those gray days are not really alluring for taking photographs. At least for me. I miss the light, the contrasts and the colors. So I guess I am a so called "good weather photographer". At least right now. But I do also have quite a lot of work to do. I am working on a new concept for my time after New York, I am working on a couple of interviews with photographers and (important) I am starting to get in touch with different people from newspapers and magazines in Austria. That goes very slowly, I have to follow up on e-mails, have to write new ones, have to call again but don't get any concrete answers. Well that's just the way it is I guess. Hope that will be at least a little easier as soon as I have the possibility to meet in person.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:11 PM | Comments (7)

The American Flag on cars

More for my collection of American Flags in the archive.

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

Photoshooting with the comedian Colin Kane

I got an e-mail about two weeks ago by a guy called Colin Kane. He found my blog, liked my photography and asked me to take photographs of him to use on his website and some promotional material.

Colin Kane is a young Standup-Comedian who works in a Law company on daytime to earn a living and as a Comedian in different New York City Clubs at night. I went to see one of his shows in a small club on Bleeker Street Saterday night. We met before the show started to take some pictures in the empty club on stage. Well, not really the kind of photography I usually do, it has too much of a studio feeling for me. But anyway. We'll meet again and take some photographs on the streets of New York. I guess that will feel better then although these shots will be posed... Good training to do that kind of thing. Who knows, one day I'll get an assignment for an advertisment shoot where everything will be staged as well. Too bad that a lot of photojournalists and documentary photographers have to do advertisement shootings to earn a living.

Update March 12th 2006: I just deleted one of the photos from this post due to a request of Mr. Kane. He thought that the removed image might not be helpful for his career... Since I am a nice guy I removed it.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:53 PM | Comments (3)

A man on the south tip of Manhattan

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American Flags used in diversity

And here we go again with two more photographs showing the American Flag. The first photograph shows Zegir Berisha, a native from Serbia who came to the United States 35 years ago. He has four sons who were born here. Two are Marines and two are in the Army. Although he didn't get the US citizenship because he is from Serbia as he told me, he loves America. He stand with the American people and their flag to fight terrorism.
The second image shows two women who build a rocket out of cardboard and who wear it as a penis with the American Flag on it as a form of protest against the government and the US led war.

My interest in the American way to tread their flag is still big. As an Austrian I am not used to this huge amount of patriotism. I already wrote about this in an earlier post from mid June. When I came to New York I somehow started to loosely collect photographs from the American Flag. And I still do. I realized that my collection got pretty big by now. I didn't publish most of these photographs yet but some can found in the archive and I plan to do a gallery on that in the near future.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:21 PM | Comments (4)

Reverend Al Sharpton together with Fernando Ferrer

Reverend Al Sharpton (on the left) together with the democratic mayors canidade Fernando Ferrer (in the middle) and former mayor of New York David Dinkins (on the right) at the African-American Day Parade last Sunday in Harlem. (Thanks Victor for the information you left as a comment.)

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:28 PM | Comments (3)

View onto Manhattan from the Staten Island Ferry

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Walking along Ground Zero

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People mourning while the reading of the names

At this years 9/11 commemoration about 640 siblings of those who died four years ago read the names of the 2,749 World Trade Center victims.

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

A woman paying tribute at Ground Zero

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Man carrying a 9/11 flag near Ground Zero

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9/11 - New York I hope you are feeling better

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I've spent the entire day, from 07:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. at Ground Zero to photograph those remembering the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. I only left for about an hour and a half in the evening to take the ferry to Staten Island and back. Getting a better sight onto the Manhattan Skyline with the two beams of light marking the places where the World Trade Center towers once stood.

It was a pretty intense and long day. I walked around all day and it was touching although I didn't know anyone who died four years ago. I took a lot of photographs and recorded sound to do a feature on that.

Let's leave it with the following wisdom I found today:

Yo New York

I Love You

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:59 PM | Comments (10)

The American Flag on the old Staten Island Ferry Station

More American Flags here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:48 PM | Comments (4)

Magnum Photos staff and interns after work

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People waiting at a bus stop in Lower Manhattan

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Color is color is color is color

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I've been in Woodstock for a photography workshop with Alex Webb last weekend. Originally I should have assisted him but there was not much left to do for me so I just enjoyed the workshop. I've written about the workshop before.

As already mentioned I enjoyed the two days a lot. But frankly spoken I didn't have the feeling to have learned a lot new. Two days are just a very limited time.

About a week later I see things in a different light, word-for-word, and I realize that I took something important with me from those two days with Alex and Rebecca.

I usually see black and white while photographing. Although I have the deepest respect for good color photography I just always had the feeling that it is so much harder to see in color.
Alex Webb was talking about color and light in his work. That color is about emotion. I started to grapple with that thought and looked through some of his books again, paying more attention to details and lightning. I am not saying that I suddenly turned into a color photographer but I have to admit that I am starting to see color images while wandering around on the streets of New York. I enjoy the warm light and shadows on late afternoons more and I'd say that this is something I didn't always pay enough attention to.

I took the image above last Thursday evening in Flushings, Queens. I passed by this billiard cafe, saw the people playing inside, the reflections in the window and I didn't even ask myself if this should be black and white or color. It was clear that it had to be a color photograph.

So this is what I took with me. I've been inspired to further develope my way of seeing. And it's great to have the possibility to choose, based on your subject, if you want to shoot in color or black and white. There is still a long way to go but let me tell you, I have so much joy going this way!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:06 PM | Comments (9)

An adventure: A day trip to Staten Island

Today is the last day of the 2005 Labor Day Weekend. For all none Americans: Labor Day is a national holiday which is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers.
That basically means that I had a long weekend starting with a short Friday (the last short Friday where Magnum closed at 1 p.m.), ending with a Monday off.

I had a great weekend. The weather was wonderful throughout the entire weekend. It was sunny and hot but it wasn't humid which even made the midday hours bearable. I didn't really know what to do Friday evening and was assessing of whether to go out or stay at home. I ended up turning some relaxing music on. I listened to "Freundeskreis" which means circle of friendship. "Freundeskreis" are a German band, they do a mix of Hip Hop and Reggae and sing in 4 different langages. Esperanto, German, English and French. You might want to check out "Freundeskreis" on Amazon.
Anyway, so I turned that music on, laid down on my bed and started to drift away... I got a lot of sleep that night which made me well rested for the following day.

Saterday morning I met Irene, another Magnum intern from Mexico. We took the ferry to Staten Island and got on the bus to go all the way down to the end of Staten Island. We were on the search for an old ship yard another co-worker told us about.
The bus drive took pretty long, about an hour and a half probably but it was an interesting ride. We got to see a lot of Staten Island which is again totally different to the rest of New York. You somehow have the feeling not to be in the city anymore. It's totally suburban with a lot of one family houses, a front porch and tons of American Flags flying. There seem to be some rich areas and a lot of middle class areas. I also got the feeling that the majority of people living there is white. Someone told me that Staten Island is known for it's racist infringements but I don't know if that's true or not.

After arriving at Arthur Kill Road and Roosville Avenue we stood in front of a long fence which environed a scrap yard at the water front. We went along that fence and found a small stream which dug a hole underneath that fence just big enough to crawl through. Alright, the adventure can start... We got inside that scrap yard and saw the old ships lying in the water behind a small hill. We walked around a little bit and tried to get on the other side of that hill to get closer to those ships. Unfortunatly there was a lot of water between us and the ships... We should have tried to get in at another spot which would have led us nearer. Still an interesting surrounding. All those half sunk old rusty and damaged ships which offer a new home to all sort of birds and other animals. We have been sitting there for a while and decided to leave when we heared voices nearby. See a satellite image of the ship yard on Google.

Out again we went inside a Saloon to have a drink and eat something. Man let me tell you. Totally western style with some Harley Davidson bikers having a couple of drinks and playing a video game where you hold a rifle shooting deers. The food was good. Strengthened after lunch we continued our exploration of Staten Island and kept on walking on Arthur Kill Road. Visited an old cemetery, talked to a guy who was flying an old US Flag on his front porch which only had 31 stars in it and suddenly stood in front of a prison. Actually it's not called prison in North America but Correctional Facility...

We then took the bus back to the Staten Island Ferry station to get back to Manhattan. The light was wonderful at that time. Warm and rich. Back in Manhattan Irene left to meet somebody and I stayed near the ferry station to take a couple of photographs in that great light. A good and interesting day with a lot of new discoveries. I enjoy these days of just walking and looking around so much!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:09 PM | Comments (8)

Jogging along the East River on a beautiful Saterday evening

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Reflections in a window of a Chinese restaurant in Flushings

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Family excursion to the Dutchess County Fair

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The Alex Webb / Chuck Norris connection

I am back from my weekend with Alex Webb, his wife Rebecca Norris Webb and about 12 other people who took a workshop at the Woodstock Center of Photography. Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb have been teaching this workshop together.

A note about Woodstock first

I have to say that Woodstock is a strange place... About 4000 people live there all year long, about 15.000 in the summer time. It kind of has an American small town feel to it but at the same time it's totally touristic with a whole bunch of arts-galleries, shops and restaurants. And how else could it be - some visitors of the famous 1969 concert in Woodstock have never left since then as it seems. There are not only a handful of hippies, old and young, who are carrying the message of love and peace out to the world. At least to Woodstock.

The Workshop

The two workshop days have been interesting, intense, inspiring and fun. Of course two days are a little short but we made the best out of it. Saterday morning was the time to introduce everyone and have a review of all portfolios. We got a shooting assignment for the afternoon which meant that we should just go out and photograph what interests us. We were asked to try and photograph more intuitively. Don't think too much when photographing. One of my weak points.

I went to the Dutchess County Fair about 45 minutes away from Woodstock. The second biggest County Fair in New York State. County Fairs are something typical American I'd say. A huge festivity with awards for best cows, pigs, chickens, pigeons, horses and other animals. There is a huge amusement park, tons of Hot Dogs, Pizzas, Burritos Pepsis and cotton candies. I only had about two hours left to photograph and it was kind of interesting because I didn't put myself too much into a situation of stress but just walked, looking around. The photo above is from that fair.

On the second day of the workshop we had to get along without photographing. We were asked to make a first and second edit of our photographs which was then shown to all of us. Interesting to see how Alex Webb examines the photos. This was also sort of a short introduction to editing which is one of the most important processes a photographer should be able to do.

Well and we talked a lot. Alex and Rebecca told us about their work, they've shown us prints and got asked a lot of questions of course. A nice and relaxed atmosphere!

What do Alex Webb and Chuck Norris have in common?

I do not know Chuck Norris personally but I'd say not much. So then what is this whole Chuck Norris thing all about? This is one of the funny stories Alex came across... So what does a Magnum Photographer have in common with a martial-arts TV and Movie star? First the beard. Second their color of skin. These two things seem to be enough in some parts of the world to mistake Alex Webb and Chuck Norris. Paradoxically Chuck Norris movies seem to be well known and exported into countries which usually don't have a wide selection of TV shows and movies.

When he told us about one of his trips to Haiti this came up. People on the streets suddenly started to believe that this is Chuck Norris who is walking around taking photographs. He was then working together with a fixer (a native who helps translating if necessary, who shows you around, who knows a bunch of people and who watches your back if there is a need to do so) who decided that it would be better to leave them in this misbelief. This trip took place while one of the many rough times in Haiti. People were suspicous and the fixer thought that it might unburden his work to a certain degree.
At one point a big muscular Haitian man came over to Alex and told him that he was a huge fan of him (of Chuck Norris unfortunatly), that he was into martial-arts himself and asked for a tip which might help his career. Alex told him the same thing he tells people asking for an advice in photography. "Don't think too much and be intuitive." This was not the only time people thought that he was Chuck Norris. Especially when travelling together with his wife and they have to show their passports. Rebeccas passport only says "Rebecca Norris" and not "Rebecca Norris Webb". Border officials already thought that Mr. Norris might travel under a pseudonym... :-)
Go ahead and compare for yourself. Visit Chuck Norris' website and Alex Webbs website to see their portraits.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:06 PM | Comments (6)

People on 42nd Street in Manhattan

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:14 AM | Comments (2)

War Photographer: The Backstage Story

Thomas Dworzak introduced me to this war photographer a couple of days ago. To protect his identity we are simply going to call him "Mr. War Photographer". I had some very interesting discussions and hour long talks with Mr. War Photographer at the Magnum Office. Well actually he doesn't like to talk that much but he is at least a good listener and a very interesting guy. Mr. War Photographer recently got a new assignment to document inner city life of the New York City Magnum office. He started his journey through Magnum New York today and I was privileged to join him.
We had sort of a rough day together. We muddled through all areas of the office, got to see the ups and downs, got to see heart rending moments in the cultural department and burning heads in the accounting department. We've been witnessing dramatic moments of life and in the middle of the chaos we found moments of hope and humanity.

After this time of combat photography in the middle of the Magnum office Mr. War Photographer decided to put away his bulletproof vest to take the next step documenting the aftermathes of all this. He decided to photograph on the fire escapes looking for remaing traces of the current situation.

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

Some certain small things that make me know: I'm back

It's some certain small things that make me know that I am back in New York. It starts when getting on the bus in the morning, you look at the driver and say something like "Good morning, how are you doing today?". And you actually get an answer. It's this certain amount of friendliness in every day life situations which have been strange to me when I came to New York and which I appreciate now.
Seeing some of my fellow commuters again, recognizing some faces on the train, seeing people who are singing and dancing in public while listening to their MP3 player without getting stared at. Impossible in Vienna...
Getting back to work, meeting my colleagues again, hearing that they wanted me to bring Milka chocolate and "Mozartkugeln" from Vienna but didn't want to ask for it. I even heared that there was a guy calling the Magnum office telling them that he is a big fan of Magnum, that he loves my blog and therefore would really like to come over and see the office. First they told him that this is rather unusual but he sort of begged and then he was told that I am going to get in touch with him once I am back. I didn't yet get his contact information but am waiting for it.
It's this special sort of light, the last sunbeams coming down to the streets reflected by the windows of skyscrapers which is irresistible. The great diversity of people and cultures you happen to see wherever you look.
And of course it's also the noise on the streets, the hot and steamy air down in the subway stations and a couple of other things which are not as nice as the above described. Everything forms one whole thing. Oh and by the way... I met my new roommates. They are nice and they are artists. Artists... Well I am a little suspicious towards everything containing this term but we already talked about art a little bit tonight and I guess we are going to have some nice conversations on that topic. Might help me to get rid of some more prejudices.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:55 PM | Comments (8)

Back in New York (after a 16 hour trip)

After three weeks of abstinence I am back in New York. I had a long day, left Vienna at 11:00 am, arrived in London, left London at 07:00 pm and arrived in New York at 09:30 pm (03:30 am Vienna time).
I took a cab to Co-Op City which cost me 60 Dollars, arrived in the apartment and nothing is as it should be. There are new roommates in the apartment which I didn't meet yet and the room in which I should be sleeping seems to be used by someone. So at the moment there is no place left for me... At least I could hook up my computer again to check my e-mails and post this short note.
I am now considering going to the huge 24 hour supermarket nearby to get something to drink or just take a shower and try to sleep a bit on the living room couch waiting for these guys to return.
Anyway, I am looking forward to get back to work tomorrow and start photographing again. I am already a little nervous and am planing new stuff for my next three months in New York.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:19 PM | Comments (2)

A father and his sons wearing the American colors

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 07:07 PM | Comments (3)

World Trade Center and Statue of Liberty in Manhattan

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 05:53 PM | Comments (1)

Some more American National Flags

It's time to continue my series on American National Flags. A topic which still interests me a lot since we Europeans don't know this strong showing of patriotism. Although I talked to a lot of Americans about this topic it's still a little strange for me. I've once written about that already and received some interesting comments of my visitors.
Both images have been taken in Williamsburg. The first one shows part of a garage door, the second one a window of a liquid store.
You can see all entries/images on American National Flags or Patriotism here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)

Weekend in and around Margaretville, Upstate New York

As mentioned before I went to visit a very good friend of mine in Margaretville this weekend. Margaretville is about 3,5 hours drive northwest from New York situated in Delaware County, Upstate New York.
Well, what can I say... I had a very relaxing and inspiring weekend together with my friend Thomas. He organized a small Motel next to the town, we were hanging out on meadows, sitting next to a small river, had lunch in the garden of his great grand uncles farm (I am actually not sure about the precise relationships between him and his relatives since it's a rather complex story - more on that tomorrow) and we were driving around in a rather busted Ford Pickup Truck from the 90ties. We were talking a lot, about god and the world and I was enoying the quietness, the fresh air and the nature up there so much. It was a good idea to leave New York City for the weekend to calm down a bit and open up my mind again. Well, it was just a little short. And I got to meet Berna, Lauren and some other relatives of Thomas. They have warm-hearted welcomed me with open arms.

It was also quite interesting to see such a somehow typical American small town with only 600 inhabitants. All those wooden houses with their front porches, a lot of them had the flag flying in front, the old trucks on the roads, the people behaving in a complete different way than in New York. Everyone is friendly all the time, everyone is an active part of the community, everyone goes to church on Sunday and everyone looks after each other. I guess this would be too much friendliness and small town life for me with the time. I am a city dweller so I am not used to that.

I didn't focus on photography that much since coming somewhere for only two days is too short to get some meaningful images of American small town life. But I still shot a lot. I just started to shoot out of the window of our driving car, trying to captere some scenes of Margaretville and it's surrounding. I should have recorded the sound of the truck to make some sort of multimedia film out of it but anyway, I can still go back and make up for it later.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 09:53 PM | Comments (5)

More people with American Flags on Independence Day

I met Jim and his family on 4th of July at Ground Zero, the former World Trade Center site. Jim's father served in the US Army and the American Flag is a symbol of freedom to him. It's about remembering the fallen. That's the cost of freedom he told me.
Jim and his family live in California, they just came to visit New York. What makes the States so special for this family is that everyone is able to freely move around and do whatever they want to. There are no checkpoints and checking of IDs as between single states in the US as there is between countries in Europe.

This is Billy. He told me that the United States of America are like one big family. "We are united and people are standing together in these hard times. You know, if a country doesn't stand together it breaks up. People that you never expected are standing together since 9/11. But New York is going to be New York no matter what happens. But still a lot of things changed". The flag is a thing of freedom for him. "Man I gotta go, I just stopped by to pay my respect." Billy looks over to Ground Zero, he crosses himself and drives away.

This is (for now) the end of my Independece Day series on people wearing the American Flag. It's been interesting to talk to those people, getting a little insight into what they think on this huge American holiday.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:18 PM | Comments (1)

Rachel wearing the American Flag as a scarf

My attention was drawn to Rachel, whom I met on Coney Islands sidewalk, because she wore a scarf showing the American flag. Since I was after people showing their US origin on Independence Day I approached her by introducing myself. I told her that I am an Austrian photographer currently doing an internship at a photo agency in Manhattan and that I am interested in the way Americans see their flag, that I want to know what makes America so special for them.

Rachel was very friendly and noticed my German accent. She started to talk a little German and told me that she lived in Germany for half a year and in England for quite a long time since her husband is from there. Regarding my questions we had a rather long and really interesting and nice conversation and she basicly told me the following:

Her family is jewish and they immigrated to the United States from Eastern Europe about a 100 years ago. It was the one place which gave home to her family. And the States have done more for Jewish people than any other country in the world.
Regarding the flag: it's not about fascism. It's just a sign of being American. MTV is cool nowadays, rockclubs are cool. But what about God and the flag. They aren't cool and that's a petty. People tend to have this all or nothing view. Take Bush for example. Every president makes unpopular decisions. Eight years later the next president comes and he'll make unpopular desicions as well.
When Rachel lived in England she felt very uncomfortable about being American in Britain although Britain is Americas number 1 ally. People asked her why Bush was elected, what's going on in Iraq, they asked her why this and this decision was made by the government. She pretended not to like what's going on the States to be left alone.

And when does Rachel wear the American flag? Hm... Only on special days. Well, only on July 4th and on Memorial Day probably. She told me:"I am wearing it to get a laugh out of people. I guess it's about getting attention".

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 05:59 PM | Comments (1)

Joe from Coney Island on Independence Day

Today was Nathan's Famous hot dog eating contest on Coney Island. So I got up very early this morning, went to Coney Island (which is about 2 and a half hours away from Co-Op City) to photograph this crazy contest. I got there about 2 hours before the contest actually started but I had absolutly no chance to see something or photograph something. There have already been so many people lining up for it.
Kind of a disgusting thing... The guy who won last year, won again today but he missed his own world record of 53½ Hot Dogs within 12 minutes. He only ate 49 today... What a looser... ;-)

So no photographs of the International Hot Dog Eating Contest. But I started to walk around on Coney Island (where I got a really, really bad sunburn) and talked to a view people wearing the Amercian Flag in one or the other way on todays Independence Day.

One of the people I met was sixty year old Joe who lives just three blocks away from the beach and who is selling cars. Joe was hanging out on the parking lot, wearing shorts showing the American Flag and his head was covered by a American flag headscarf.
I asked him what the American flag means to him and what the most important thing is which makes the United States so special.
He told me that the flag is kind of a reminder for all the soldiers fallen or fighting in a war. His father died in World War II. It's about showing support for the army.
And what's the thing which makes the States so special? Well, he was born here, he was raised here and he never left the US except for a trip to Puerto Rico (which is part of the States). All people, people from all countries, whether they are from the US, from Europe or from another part of the world, have opportunities. All have equal opportunities and rights he told me. So he is proud to be American.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 08:50 PM | Comments (2)

Mad C paints a wall at 5Pointz

I went back to 5Pointz today to just hang out and relaxe a little bit. I met Claudia aka "Mad C" again. Mad C is a 25 year old girl from Germany currently doing an internship in New York. She started to paint Graffiti back in 1996 and happend to meet some people, who knew some people, who knew some people (and so on) who got her in touch with the crew of 5Pointz. I wrote about them in yesterdays post.
Anyway, after showing some pictures of pieces she did she was allowed to paint a wall on the rooftop of this old factory building. She started painting yesterday, continued today and will finish in time for tomorrows rooftop party over there. She is really talented. It's amazing which things you can paint and write on a wall with cans of spray! By the way, check out the website of Mad C with pictures of walls, sketches and stickers she did. Regarding the spray: Claudia told me that it's kind of hard to get the necessary amount of cans nowadays because of certain restrictions. She went to buy them together with her brother who is visiting at the moment. The aerosol cans where locked behing bars in the store, she was asked what these colors will be used for and had to show her ID. Well I guess New York is a branded kid concerning Graffiti although Graffiti can be seen on the streets very rarly nowadays. It's not like in those movies from which Europeans get there knowledge about New York. Time changed, so did the appearance of the streets. 5Pointz is one of the rare places were Graffiti is legal (don't go there and start painting, you have to make an appointment first) and it's a good spot to meet some old timers. Graffiti writers who already started back in the 70ties. I'll definitly come back to hang out and watch living art.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:23 PM | Comments (4)

5Pointz Graffiti in Brooklyn

After going to Red Hook today (where I actually felt a little uncomfortable, getting kind of lost in the Projects there, not knowing where to go) I took the G train back to the Court House Square station to catch the 7 train bringing me back to Flushing.
Before hopping onto the train I wanted to smoke a cigarette and went for a little walk in this area. PS1, the Contemporary Art Center of the Museum of Modern Art is located there. Tons and tons of people where lining up to get in for the Saterday afternoon warm up party at PS1. Nice music playing but a ridiculous long wait to get inside.
On the other side of the street was an old factory building with beautiful graffiti pieces on the wall (see for yourself). I went over to take a closer look and mentioned that the whole building was somehow used as a painting surface for graffitis.

I walked around the corner and saw a bunch of people standing in front of walls painting graffitis. One of these people was "Cyde one" a graffiti writer from Switzerland. He came to the States for two weeks to team up with a graffiti group - painting some walls. The walls they used were in dark shadow already when I arrived their so I decided not to photograph them. But I'll come back to do so.

The factory building which is covered into graffiti pieces is administrated by 5Pointz. 5Pointz stands for the five boroughs of New York. It's a place for showcasing wonderful, artistic graffiti paintings on the walls of this old factory which is partly still in use as a clothing factory and partly used as artists studios.
Wow, thats the kind of graffitis you are looking for after arriving in New York but they just can't be found walking the streets of Manhattan. You have to know where to go since the big times of illegal graffiti writing onto walls and trains is over for a long time already.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:54 PM | Comments (2)

The Gay Pride Parade in color (last part)

This is the last set of photographs I am posting of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride March 2005 in New York City. Because I got request for color photos of that day... Here are some color photographs for my visitors I care for. :-) Have fun and see more photographs of the parade here and here.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:43 PM | Comments (4)

Running TV on board the Brooklyn VI boat

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:17 PM | Comments (2)

The hell of a weekend is waiting for me

I just watched the San Antonio Spurs win the 2005 NBA Finals. I would have prefered to see Detroit win but it was a good game and the Spurs earned it. Anyway, I have to go to bed immediatly since I'll get up at 04:45 in the morning to head over to Brooklyn, catching a boat that will bring a couple of people onto the ocean for fishing. I actually never went fishing neither onto the sea with a boat. Sounds like good fun and a relaxing day. I made sure to get a hat and a sunblocker factor 45 today...
After coming back tomorrow evening I'll head over to Flushing Meadows Corona Park for the opening night of Billy Grahams New York Crusade. I just have to see myself how many people attend this conservative, huge, huge "crusade". I want to see which kind of people go their.
Saterday will be the Mermaid Parade on Coney Island as well as Billy Graham again and Sunday is the Gay Pride Parade in Manhatten and again... Billy Graham. I am sure this will be a weekend full of visual excitement and a lot of shooting for me.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:45 PM | Comments (3)

Two more American National Flags II

This is another photograph of my loose collection of American flags withing photos. After posting the last two I got an e-mail from a former Co-Op City resident writing that he heard similarly from other young Europeans that American patriotism strikes them as unusual. Here is an excerpt of that e-mail:

"I've heard similarly from other young Europeans that American patriotism strikes them as unusual. (In one case I'd mentioned to a Dutch epenpal that I'd gone with my children and my father-in-law to my town's small Memorial Day service and parade.) I think the primary difference is that in American the nation, the government, and the people have always been the same thing. The flag does not represent a government which rules us, it represents the people that we are. As a nation of immigrants, there is not symbol of our identity that is not a symbol of the country. And while we've lost soldiers, the country has never been truly devastated by war to the degree much of Europe has been, so the people find both war and its trappings -- which is how Europeans tend to see any signs of nationalism -- less distasteful. (That's a positive reinforcement cycle: since we fly flags other than at times of war, and other than when flown by the goverment and its armed forces, we don't view flags as part of the war machine, and we are thus more likely to fly them.) How does a European express "I am proud and glad to be part of this greater community"?"

I think this is an interesting point of view. Of course I can mainly speak about Austrians only. But I think that Europeans generally do not feel the need to express that they are proud and glad to be part of this greater community. Why? Because I don't think that Europeans see theirselfs as part of a great community. I don't think that the majority of Austrians are proud to be Austrian. At least I am not. I wouldn't want to be American or French, Italian, Chinese or whatever as well because I do think that the country doesn't really matter. I couldn't be proud to be born in a certain country just because of this country...
Am I wrong? Would be great if you'd leave your opinions on that as a comment on this site.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 03:50 PM | Comments (10)

Two more American National Flags

These photos show two more American Flags (well, not actually flags but something similar) I found on my way through New York City. Whenever I stumble upon a US flag I am taking a photograph of it. It's not a serious project I am working on, let's say I just collect them.

My week has been extremly buisy at work. Since everyone is preparing for the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of Magnum which will take place this month in Paris there are a lot of presentations to be set up. That's the reason why I kind of neglected this photoblog a little bit (at least I got the feeling that I did). I just didn't have that much time to roll around the city, taking pictures, experiencing adventures or meeting new people. Not every day can be a eventfully day.

I am already very much looking forward to this weekend. There's a lot going on in New York. The Puerto Rican Day Parade will be this Sunday, there will be the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party in Madison Square Park on Saterday. Sunday afternoon I'll be going to Coney Island again to record some sounds with Claudine and BJ from work. And I do also have to work on a website for one of my Austrian customers. I was able to take the day off on Monday to go on working on that website. So be prepared for some nice shots and stories about this weekend.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:49 PM | Comments (3)

A girl enjoying a sunny afternoon

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:31 PM | Comments (6)

A woman waiting on the sidewalk

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 10:11 PM | Comments (4)

Dance Africa 2005 in Brooklyn

After my Memorial Day experience yesterday I went to the Brooklyn Academy of Music to see Victor, my host. He works at BAM and invited me to come over to see the closing ceremony of Dance Africa, America’s longest-running annual festival of dance, music, film, art, and culture from Africa and the African Diaspora.

I was really amazed when I arrived there. The whole place in front of the BAM and the streets around it have been closed for this purpose. A huge mass of people have been waiting to see the actors, the dancers and musicians of Dance Africa on the closed off place doing there performences on the street. On the surrounding streets was one huge street fair with food and clothes.
The light was wonderfull, enforcing all those rich colors of the African dresses. You could feel the good and peaceful spirits in the air, all sorts of people hanging out together, enjoying the rythms, the dances, food and drinks and the sun of course. A very nice and relaxed multicultural festival in the middle of Brooklyn! A huge contrast to my earlier Memorial Day experience.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 07:48 PM | Comments (9)

316 (Threehundredandsixteen) American National Flags

This post should have originally been titled "The last Weekend on Long Island before my girlfriends return home" but I decided to change the titel to the above one because the new title is related to the weekend in Long Island as well and those flags have been very interesting to us.

As a end of this weeks visit of my girlfriend Karin (she had to leave this evening to fly back home) we decided to spend the weekend in Montauk, a small village on Long Island.
After we knew that we wanted to go to Long Island we decided to rent a car for the weekend. Better coming around from beach to beach or from village to village in case of we wouldn't like the place we where going. So we got up Saterday morning, checked the trip route on Google, wrote everything down and left the apartment to go the Hertz, picking our car up.

We had our first nice experience while waiting for the bus in Co-Op City. A family of geese were walking around the green areas. I often saw them while passing by Section Five of Co-Op City which is directly next to the Hutchinson River but I never saw them here in Section One. Section Five is rather far away and there is a highway in between... A few minutes after we came to the bus station the geese (on the other side of the street yet) decided to move over to a new meadow and slowly started to cross the street in a perfect line. One after the other. Traffic had to stop - they didn't seem to be in a hurry. A very nice situation.

However, we arrived at Hertz on East 90th street to pick our rental car up about an hour and a half late. I've already been thinking about the possibility that they might have no car left from the smallest budget range. Lucky as we were they didn't, we got a free upgrade and finally sat into a brand new, huge and damn comfortable Volvo XC 70 including a GPS Navigational System. I still had the prejudice that these systems do not work well and probably lead us somewhere we didn't want to go. But luckily it worked very well and we found our way to Long Island.

To refere back to this posts title, we somehow started to count american national flags after leaving the city. We've been looking for flags on the roadside flying in front of houses, at gas stations, in car windows or on top of company buildings. We started to count while driving on the highway which was not such a big deal, but when we came to Long Island and drove through villages and towns we got really buisy. While we drove about 140 miles (approx. 225km) we counted 316 american flags. I am sure we missed some since we didn't count in New York City and in the town of Montauk. That's an amazing number isn't it? America is completely different in terms of patriotism than every other country I've been to. If you for example use an Austrian national flag in my homecountry to show that you are proud of this country everyone looks at you as if you would have got crazy. Personally I feel a bit uncomfortable with too much patriotism and bonds to a certain country.

Despite the fact that Karin had to leave this evening our weekend on Long Island was great. Montauk is a very beautiful place, it's quiet (at least at this time of the year), the beaches are very nice and clean and the atlantic ocean... What should I say... I love the atlantic ocean. And since Montauk has one of the busiest fisher harbors in New York State there are also some great places for delicious seafood. I got the second best tuna steak (after one I had in Portugal) of my life in a place called "Lenny's on the Dock" which is located directly at the harbor.

We found a nice small Motel with the sea just across the street in which we stayed for the night. We wanted to visit the lighhouse in the morning but there have been too many people there and the entrace was 16 dollars. Too much if you can have a beautiful beach for free. The way back to New York was not that good. Too much traffic, rain and a both of us have been in a thoughtful mood since we won't see each other for two months. But we got a new counting idea for our next trip. The next time we travel in the States by car we are going to count the yellow "Support Our Troops" and "God Bless America" ribons sticked to a lot of cars.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 11:39 PM | Comments (5)

Pictures from our Day in Brooklyn Heights

After a cloudy day without sunshine the sun finally came out when we arrived at the river promenade in Brooklyn Heights in the evening.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 03:50 AM | Comments (3)

42nd Street Subway Station

This is actually an image I took last Friday night. It shows the subwaystation on 42nd street. A whole bunch of people even on Fridayu night... Since I was working all day long and my girlfriend is already waiting for me I have to hurry up and catch her. More photographs and notes from New York tomorrow!

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 06:06 PM | Comments (7)

Reflection of Washington Square Park in a window

This photography shows a reflection of Washington Square park in a window of the New York University. I was wandering around SoHo and the West Village today and spend quite a while in Washington Square Park. Washington Square park is for sure a place to meet very interesting people. I met a guy called Norman who's around the park every weekend to play and teach chess for a few bucks. He told me that he doesn't charge his teaching lesson if he loses. He was not good enough to teach his students then... More on Norman to come in the next days.

I have also been to the Leica Gallery to see the second part of the exhibition "Witness to a Century". A collection of photographs from the 1960ties to 2005. The exhibiton is still open to the public until May 14. So visit soon at free admission. It is located at 670 Broadway, Suite 500 in Greenwich Villag.

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 01:28 AM | Comments (6)

Arrival in New York City

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

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

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

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

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

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

Posted by Martin Fuchs at 02:28 PM | Comments (12)