fashion week 2012: searching

after the bill blass show

park avenue, nyc

© anita aguilar

fashion week 2012: a little night-stalking

behold:
the flash and mob
the curious and cool

the weirdly exciting energy around pretty things and people...

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the larger set, if you are so inclined:

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i hope you like them...

class picture: b&w street shots

on a day when i was assigned to find "light and shadow" the sky was perfectly...grey.

i didn't get too many good photos, but the day inspired a couple of memorable encounters:

mister hazmat.

i asked permission to take his photo ("sign" language, as he was on the phone).

i wish i'd thought to get his whole outfit, but i was so fixated on his face, his hood.

and then he flashed me that sign, with his funky-tipped gloves.

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there was a single moment that afternoon when the sun burst through the clouds and created exactly the kind of dramatic shadow i needed to work with. i noticed a woman, directly across the street from me, sitting almost regally with her fur-trimmed coat, her legs crossed at the ankles, on the thick concrete slabs that create some roaming space for pedestrians around madison square park. she looked relaxed--and i hesitated to disturb her--but wanted to make a photo of her. so i made a gentle ask...

it turned out she didn't speak english. so we exchanged signs, i pointed at the camera, and she consented, with a nod. but by then the sun was gone.

still, i wanted a photo of her, but asked her to turn her head so i could get her strong profile. i pointed in the direction i wanted her to look. she stood up and walked that way. we were both confused, but had a nice laugh afterwards. (how funny that she would even think to take that kind of direction from me so willingly, yes?) she liked the photos, but the expression on her face in this one, as she's walking away from me, is my favorite.

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all photos taken jan 10, 2012

© anita aguilar

pretty city: wedding day

i'm not big on weddings or wedding photography, but this was a sort of delightful encounter.

i walked alongside this couple for a block or two. they seemed a little unnerved by all the attention and the strangers like me who snapped unofficial wedding portraits. but if you decide to have your photos taken on fifth avenue near rockefeller center on a saturday afternoon, you're kind of asking for it.

in any case, when the real cameras went up, they put on their best, happy faces.

i wish you could see this bride's shoes...navy blue wedges. very cool.

i've not seen this move before--"the claw."

the photographer held his hand up for a while and made like he was squeezing one of those foam stress balls.

absurd, but he got them to laugh.

the shadow of the trees makes the photo work, for me.

and then he got them to make a heart with their arms.

if i ever get married, i hope i won't be so out of my mind that i'll agree to play simon sez with the photographer.

it's cute on these two, though.

and on the 9th day...

i had an idea to mark the occasion of my first day at my new job with a photo of the "new" neighborhood. but i fussed a little too long over what to wear, and a quick snapshot was all i had time for. disappointing. i liked the lines in this shot. (meanwhile, a jam, a half-closed street and an ambulance seemed, for a second, a bit ominous...)


but it also seemed on review, an unremarkable photo. i probably wouldn't have posted it here, except a little more than a week later, you can see this small swath of 17th street has been transformed, as part of our transportation commissioner's livable streets program.

free line skaters

the pedestrian and bike paths and a handful of tables and chairs leave only a slim lane for traffic on 17th, and north on broadway...

not that i would sit here (the prospect of a cab sidling up to my elbow as i sip my coffee doesn't appeal) but it does change the energy of the block. people seem bolder, weaving in and out (on foot, on bikes, on skates) which may not be so wise. but they all seem happier with these small touches (well, maybe not the people in the cars and cabs).

sun in the afternoon

west 37th street, nyc, sept 2, 2010.

pretty city: warren street

on warren street. hudson, ny.

aug 21, 2010

pretty city: l'orange blue in the afternoon

broome/crosby streets, nyc. august 20, 2010

west side (color) story

west 39th bet. 8th/9th.

july 31, 2010.

west 39th bet. 9th/10

july 31, 2010.

photos © anita aguilar

read a good poem: yours & mine

fifth avenue, nyc. photo © anita aguilar

Through your lens the sequoia swallowed me
like a dryad. The camera flashed & forgot.
I, on the other hand, must practice my absent-
mindedness, memory being awkward as a touch
that goes unloved. Lately your eyes have shut
down to a shade more durable than skin’s. I know you
love distance, how it smooths. You choose an aerial view,
the city angled to abstraction, while I go for the close
exposures: poorly-mounted countenances along Broadway,
the pigweed cracking each hardscrabble backlot.
It’s a matter of perspective: yours is to love me
from a block away & mine is to praise the grain-
iness that weaves expressively: your face.

--alice fulton via poetry foundation.org

japantown: cool japan festival...(the faces)

bus stop, wet day

if someone were to grade my navigating and co-piloting skills, i think i'd rate a solid, all-around B...plus?

high marks for map-reading and general calm.

very good at assessing the snack and drink situation, and "the hand-off" (as co-pilot).

but--distractible. that messes up my average.

it's a different thing when it comes to traveling by bus, especially to new jersey. i seem to find new, inventive ways to get myself lost.

this both amuses and horrifies my family, since new jersey is my home state. but i contend that the route looks different from day to night, and season to season. the homes look, if not the exactly the same, similar enough--or it's a good bet that trees have been felled or what i have chosen as my "landmark" has been razed and replaced, or expanded, mcmansion-style, beyond recognition (at least, within the few seconds it takes to see it and process what it is, before i pass it).

last year, on my way to a dentist appointment, i panicked--got off far too early. i made my way there fine on foot (i am a good new yorker that way), but i was late. what i didn't know was after i declined my dr's kind offer to pick me up on the boulevard, he sent his assistant out in her car to come find me (i beat her back to the office). the family loved that one.

yesterday, all went according to plan. i braved the still strange route without (much) panic, and even timed it perfectly. so no good stories, but i have pictures (it took for-ev-er to get home)...

"bus stop, wet day"

the mills bakery! i have never been, but i love the sign. when i see the sign, i know where i am (for a little while)

oof, the turnpike.

tracks

photos © anita aguilar

those boots

don't seem like they were made for walking, but he covers some ground in them.

i first saw him in mad square in march, then around murray hill maybe month later.

yesterday, soho.

have you seen him too?

pretty city: back, after a fashion

hitting the streets with the 50mm after a long break...

pretty city: knee-high, downtown

april 1, 2010. first and first.

april 7, 2010. wooster street.

photos © anita aguilar

AMO the ARG: shots of color (san telmo, day 7)

all photos © anita aguilar