How many people come from so far away to this magical island with the seeds of their hopes and dreams in their pockets hoping to grow a small beginning here among the giants… some give up and others stay and continue the search for as long as the city lets them.
Day 26 of 365
Photos taken in Dumbo
It has been quite an interesting process to go at the end of each long day of walking in New York City and examine how I feel after such an immersion. Every friend I reconnect with seems to be weighed down by the strain of the unnatural essences that have blatantly hijacked the country. A friend I met today used the term ‘gangster in command’ to describe the person occupying the Oval Office and most people don’t want to mention his name, as though they are dealing with Voldemort. Is it indeed a form of evil we are dealing with that causes this state of unease and resentment?
I do pray that this state of affairs does not normalize and cause even more people to join the flock of sheep that follow this disgusting human and his money hungry ways.
I have made a point in all my posts to remain positive and inspire with both my words and photography. However, today, I find that I cannot be neutral, silent or accepting of what tries to lower the standards of a place I have grown to love over the years and that I once called home.
Day 23 of 365
Image taken in china town, New York City on a fantastic walk in lower Manhattan with an old friend.
If you ever walked in this amazing metropolis you would know that it just does not inspire you to stop. You find yourself walking and walking and walking without any inclination to stop. I have always loved that about New York. Everyone is busy doing something and inside of it all is a calm like the eye of the storm. It’s like a general agreement to keep the wheels turning night and day because this is just what the city needs.
Day 22 of 365
Images taken on the highline this afternoon
I have have lived in several places since my birth, but only one stands out as the place that challenged me most, charmed me most and formed me most. New York City is a place I will always call home. I am so happy to go back there soon and walk in the places I used to walk for almost 16 years. The friends you make in New York are friends for life and so are the experiences. I can’t wait.
On January 27th I will be offering a half-day creative street photography workshop in New York City! Please get In touch if you are interested. All experience levels, all camera, all ages welcome 😊~
Day 10 of 365
Image taken in the street on 2012 in my beloved nyc.
Spring goes so well with New York City I think! Newness, freshness, color, crispness, high energy, vibrancy, originality, creativity, Spring, are certainly words that go with it. I love New York in every season, but in the spring, I love it passionately!
I have been drawn to sports that involved moving fast and risking your neck since I was a very young child. I loved to water ski, snow ski, jump from very high places and skate. Growing up in Lebanon that was considered radical at the time, but determination to do what I wanted led me to push the limits of social tolerances. So, while in New York, I loved seeing skate boards on every street corner and rebellious teenagers zipping and flying by annoyed pedestrians. It just spelled for me the strong wish of young people to cause a change, to see a new world not dragged down by the old and to simply be free.
Don’t you love it when you find yourself so free in your mind to just break into a dance in the middle of a crowded park simply because you ‘feel’ it? Don’t you wish we could alway be reactive like children without the weight of inhibition and the shackles of self enforced rules of behavior?
photo~ man dancing in central park
Ask anyone who rides the subway for more than one hour a day and they will be sure to have some strange stories to tell you. I have a few. I realize that with this month’s postings a lot of memories and stories keep floating by, and that is because I left them there. On the subway at the age of 20 I met the first and hopefully last flasher. It was evening and I was engrossed in my Herman Hesse book ( Narcissus and Goldmund) not realizing that I was alone in the subway car after everyone filtered out, when I felt a shadow looming in front of me. I Looked up and there was the classic open raincoat with an extraordinarily large man standing in front of me exhibiting his pride. Funny how react in expected situations, and me being totally caught off-guard, I cried. Then I ran to pull the emergency brakes which caused the train to stop, the doors to open, the giant man to run away and I was directed to another car with people in it. I was then hugged by a big bosomed African American lady who giggled and said: “relax darlin’, that was entertainment for free!”
And there were the other stories, but one is enough…
When you live in a big city with very tall buildings and millions of people, you find yourself focused on the immediate area around you, navigating the ocean of people, avoiding the cars and bike zipping by and keeping close watch on any impending danger that you forget to look up. I remember that we could always tell if someone was a tourist in New York because they looked up!
Of the many strange things I have done in my life, one of them was deciding to live in Roosevelt Island. I did that for a year and every morning, the strangeness of that place grew and every evening I wondered why is it that a place can make you feel that way. A small island across the East River on the side of Manhattan, where no cars are allowed and the whole width of the island is 240 meters and length of about 3 km, it is owned by the city of Manhattan but feels like worlds away.