Light is essential to most everything without it one simple will not be able to see, grow and even live. So as I set my camera up and began to execute my plan, Hurricane Sandy hit and out went the lights. My world quickly became a world of grey shadows - like a Hitchcock movie.
Luckily I am a type A and I had already finished the first two parts of this week's assignment and sent them on to my partner before the power went out and was well into the third. I chose the photographs of Vivian Maier as my inspiration because the big plan was go to into NYC on Sunday and film in black and white. I am fascinated with NYC. Both my parents were born there, my great great grandfather John D Crimmins, was the Commissioner of Central Park, built the trolley system and St Patrick's Cathedral. His father was an Irish immigrant and was the gardener for the Vanderbilt's - from gardener to Commissioner to the biggest garden in the city in one generation. Gotta love New York!
Here he is in B/W with his top hat dead center
I am at my happiest walking the streets and thinking about who walked on the same pavement before me, the smell of roasted chestnuts and the steam from the pipes underground in my face - the Americana of it all. Filming in black and white, as Vivian did, creates that essence of nostalgia that I feel when I am in the city. Vivian Maier captured the day-to-day of live in NYC in her photos and I was going to do the same. Unfortunately Hurricane Sandy decided to come up east and I was left in the dark to rethink my plan. Staying with Viv, my new heroine, I decided to change route and look at her wonderful self portraits through reflection and mirrors.
So I got my camera, and my plan and went through the house seeking light and history through the family mirrors I had inherited.
More Vivian
More Vivian
Unable to tap into my SHU email, I can not retrieve the work my partner did on my portrait and audio piece but when I can, I will post it.
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