Pilgrimage

New Yorkers enjoy the weather in the Brooklyn Bridge Park

I don’t remember how, exactly, I came upon it, but I discovered that New York’s Museum of Modern Art was holding a retrospective exhibit of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work, spanning the whole of his career.  I knew I had to go, and had to find a way to do it.  I wouldn’t say that Henri Cartier-Bresson is one of my favorite, or even one of my biggest influences, but I couldn’t pass up a photo-centric pilgrimage to New York to see a huge collection of photos by one of the most important photographers in history.

It seemed fitting to me to go to New York, and try to see it and shoot it in a different way, as he had shot in Paris.  My goal was not to emulate Cartier-Bresson, exactly, but to take the time to wander the city and really see its richness.  One thing that I definitely do take from Cartier-Bresson is a focus on the ordinary–I like to find everyday things and elevate them, to show the little moments that make up our lives.  So I went to the famous places that I hadn’t visited before, and instead of focusing on the famous places, I tried to focus on the people in and around the famous places, and how they interacted with the city.

In a lot of ways, I was way out of my comfort zone–not exactly shooting from the hip, but shooting moments as they happened, trying to be ready with the camera, pull it up, focus, compose, take a photo.  I took a minimal kit that is not my most familiar, and shot in ways I don’t normally shoot.  The experience was freeing and fun, and reminds me of the revelations about my own hometown when I took the time to see it through the viewfinder, to explore it and see it in a new, fresh way.

The wonderful and annoying thing about New York City is that there is just so much–it’s sensory overload.  It’s very difficult to filter, to make sense of the sensory cacophony.  On the flip side, sometimes I felt I could point the camera anywhere and find something new, interesting, and worthwhile.

Manhattan, as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge

Walking around, seeing the thousands of people–tourists, locals, visitors–and the thousands of cameras and the thousands of images being made all around me, I couldn’t help but think that nothing is original, that I couldn’t–and can’t–hope to capture something unique, something special about this city.  And if that’s so, I’m okay with it, because I think this trip was important, and the images I’ve brought back with me have meaning, even if only to me.

Thanks for taking the time to look at them, and to read this blog.