photograph

Sometimes the simplest details say it all. I took this photo in a studio apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on a side street between Broadway and Riverside Drive. The layers of white paint were applied over decades of time. Each "super" preparing it for a new tenant, erasing all record of former lives lived here. The mirror imbedded in the medicine cabinet door reflects light that streams in through a small window above the cast iron radiator. In the corner is the reflection of the present tenant's color scheme. A fleeting thing. Soon to change. People come and go, but that toothbrush holder, that mirror, they remain.

The water coming out of the tap is so hot it could burn you. And oh, the luxury of the pre-environmentally friendly shower with water that shoots out with such force, you have to be careful how you position yourself! Turning your back to it is best, a serious shoulder massage can be had.

The sounds outside the window flow in a steady stream twenty-four hours a day. Voices calling, dogs barking, trash truck brakes squealing and unexplainable crashing and yelling flow on and on. You are never alone in New York. There is always life on the street.

Can you tell I went to an exhibit of the photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson at the MOMA? From then on everything I saw looked like one of his photographs. He was so good at portraying a larger message in his photographs of everyday life. He traveled extensively, mostly in Asia, between 1930-1970 as a news photographer and art photographer as well. There is a lot of history represented in his work; but indirectly. He often photographed the people watching the historic event rather than the event itself. Beauty and tragedy, joy and sorrow and everything in between are represented in the faces of his subjects. It was a thrill.

The apartment is where Carrie has lived for two years. She will soon be moving so this is an homage to the little foothold we had in New York for that time. Goodbye to West 109th Street!