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morning coffee talk New York City Photography street photography

Morning Coffee Talk~ 4/365

Good morning to you wherever you are. 

This early morning I woke up thinking about home. I have been asked several times, having led a semi-nomadic life : ‘where is home?’. Each time I scan the places where I had laid down roots and New York City lights up like a star in a clear night’s sky. 

New York was home to me from 1987 to 2002 and those years gifted me with self discovery, friends that are still friends today, invaluable experience and most importantly, ART.

I think home is something we carry in our hearts, in our suitcases and in the moment where we feel like ourselves the most. 

So if you ask me now where home is, I would say right here, where I am, writing this, waiting for my daughter to wake up and exchange our calendar small gifts, watching the first light appear and having a second cup of coffee. 

What is home to you?

Morning Coffee Talk~ 4/365

Big City Blur
The city that never stops
with the many
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New York Photography

A Beacon of Opportunity~New York City

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

Categories
inspiration New York Photography

Who is Next?~ NYC

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.

Categories
Photography street photography

A brief journey back to the place I once called home~

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.

Categories
CHINA inspiration Photography shanghai street

Motion and the city

motion and the city
Somewhere in Shanghai

I was born in a small village in Lebanon’s north. I saw almost the same faces every day and I knew that nothing was meant to stir after nightfall when we and the village slept. As peaceful as this might sound, it irked me greatly and I longed for movement, for change, for a world that does not sleep, for an energy that is unstoppable. I found that in the big city. I spent my teenage planning my way to move to a big city and to live in the middle of the whirlwind of humanity. Since then I have lived in Beirut, New York City and now Shanghai with several other city stops in between. I feel alive in the big city, I love its people, I am driven by its energy and it inspires me.

Categories
inspiration life New York Photography story

Day 30~ November 30th~ New York

those days
the new york city of then

With the last  New York post from this month, I am realizing how much of it is still in me. It has been one of the most personal months in my blog so far, so I will end it with a photo from then, from the time I was 21 and celebrating every single second I had in the city that never sleeps. We explored New York with so much openness, with inspiration, with joy, with boundless energy and that does something to you. I love photography because it captures moments that take you back, to feel, to remember to relive.

~ I am the one with the blond wig 🙂

Categories
inspiration life love New York Photography street

Day 29~ November 29th~ New York

crispness
That crisp New York City air

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!

Categories
New York Photography story street

Day 28~ November 28th~ New York

street life
exhilarating street life

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.

Categories
contemplations inspiration life New York Photography street

Day 27~ November 27th~ New York

To be free to do just that~ 

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

Categories
New York Photography story

Day 26~ November 26th~ New York

New York City Metro

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…