Photography: The Black and White Project Revisited, Day 1
I have a fair degree of readers, who will remember that 5 years ago, I went about a lengthy photo project called “The Black and White Project,” in which I took at least one picture every single day, over the course of 487 days – with one important caveat, that unless the picture specifically called for it, the picture had to be in black and white. Over the course of that period of time, the project was both autobiographical and a love letter to New York. And from what I’ve been told by a number of readers, the project was fairly popular; in fact, I’ve had two readers tell me that they were extremely sad to see the project end, and that they had wished I had continued with it. Now, over the past few months I had this powerful desire to do something creative to commemorate my 37th spin around the sun; however, I had a difficult time figuring out what I should do — that is until a couple of weeks ago.
So picture this, I’m sitting at my regular bar with C, and at some point during the conversation there was a discussion of several simultaneous creative ventures I had running through my mind, and unbeknownst to me, I blurted out “I think it’s time to re-examine ‘The Black and White Project;’ I’d probably do it for a lot shorter period — say about 30-60 days or something. I can call it the unoriginal name of ‘The Black and White Project, Revisited.'” A few days later, I came to the conclusion that 60 days or so would just about the perfect amount of time.
And here we are, back with the Black and White Project, Revisited.
After stopping at The Dead Poet for one of the best burgers I think you can get in New York, I wanted to go into Times Square but I came across the Banksy on West 79th between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue.
With a late start to my day and my night, I didn’t have a whole lot of daylight — and when you know that you want to take pictures without using flash, you wind up in Times Square, where I came across this small and solemn group of protestors.
I briefly stood at the corner of 42nd and Broadway figuring out what I was going to do when my dear friend Marta texted me and asked me what I was doing and if I was still in the city. I told her that I was standing in Times Square and quickly followed with a yes. I eventually met up with her and her girlfriend Melissa at Smithfield Hall for a few more pints. Eventually, Melissa and I dropped Marta off at the NJ Transit station, and we walked up for a few blocks — she eventually turned east on 39th and I walked up to 42nd. I came across the last two — the garment worker statue and the Hornschar graffiti while walking to the subway back to Queens.
Check out the Flickr set here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskwAcYJj
