New York City

New York City baby! Man it feels good to be back in the Big Apple! I've been pretty busy these last couple of weeks, so I'm sorry for the delayed post... I hope to keep more on top of this as I shoot my way through a year of International Center of Photography.

Yup! I'm finally here, and the last week and a half have been a whirl-wind of information, photos, and meeting new friends. I've been attending orientation classes for 8 days straight now, and have 2 more to go before I get a break. It's been a tiring, but fun week, and I really can't believe I'm actually going to school for what I want to do!

I took the above photo during my walk home on my first day of orientation. I was feeling inspired, and going for something different than I normally shoot. I really felt it worked best in black and white! I found a wonderful, fully furnished apartment in the Murray Hill neighborhood, located about a .85 mile walk from my school, which is located at 43rd and 6th Ave (aka Avenue of the Americas). At a good pace, it takes me about 15 minutes door to door, which is extremely convenient!

I'm really loving my time here so far; I've made a lot of new friends, and have been enjoying orientation activities meant to allow us to get to know each other such as a beautiful cruise around the city last night, and last Sunday a trip to Coney Island with our cameras! We were actually quite lucky to be able to shoot the last day of Astroland, the Coney Island amusement park that has been in operation since 1962, and supposedly closed it's doors for good after we left September 7th. (I say supposedly, as the closing of Astroland was announced in 2007 as well - although they are saying it is probably for real this time). 
My classmates and I spent a beautiful sunny day, getting plenty of Vitamin D and shooting images of a large variety of whacky characters and happy children.

Orientation for ICP is almost a month long, and culminates at the end of September with a slide show of images shot during two weeks of a scavenger hunt. We were given a list of photos we should be looking to shoot to fill certain categories including documenting a trace of someone or something, photograph something invisible, and making an American Photograph, etc. The whole class of 2009 (80+ people - 38 of whom are in the photojournalism/documentary program with me) were split into groups A through F for orientation. In the end each group will have four photos filling 19 categories for the final slide show! Today we got our first glimpse of everyone in our groups' photography. I entered nine photos for the day, including the one below, which will definitely be in the final edit!
This photo was taken at a street fair on 6th Avenue yesterday. The man in the photo was wearing protective glasses as he stirred a huge vat of kettle corn. I shot the image through the dirt and grease stained netting separating onlookers from what I can only assume to be splattering oil. The image will either fit into the American Photograph or the Wild Card category! I was extremely happy to get a great reaction from my peers, as this image took the screen. 

OK. That's it for tonight! I'm extremely tired, and have to be up again in the morning to show that I can print a black and white print (you know, from film - in an actual dark room!)

Thank you so much for reading. Cheers!

Love,

T