erica mcdonald – the dark light of this nothing

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Erica McDonald – The Dark Light of this Nothing

Janet: Hi Erica..(kiss)

EM: Hi, Where’s Adele?

Janet: Adele’s inside..Erica, this is my family, that’s uh..Donny, my sister in law, Sharon, Angie…David and that’s my brother John..

EM: You’ve got a good memory.

Janet: I’ve got a good memory, I have 38 nieces and nephews, I have to..this is just a little quarter of it.

EM: I’m trying to get people to talk about what the neighborhood was like and what it is like now and..

Janet: You want some dessert? Steven would know that, my husband would know that, and so would Mary.

EM: No thanks, I’m okay. Yeah, Mary was just talking to me a little.

Anthony: I wasn’t born here..I don’t know anything..

Janet: You was SO!  He’s full of crap! Where were you born? Where were you born?

Anthony: I was born in Staten Island.

Janet: No he wasn’t.. He was born here in the house on..

Anthony: What the hell is this? you gotta talk to this thing?

EM: It’s a microphone.

Janet: Dad, just talk about..

Anthony: What am I gonna tell? I was born over on 3rd street. And the place was beautiful at that time, we had a nice time, not too much traffic, I’m old, that’s why. We used to play stickball in the middle of the street, there was no traffic, you could play stickball. right? Today you can’t even walk in the friggin street, too many cars.

Janet: You played Skellies..

Anthony: Skellies, well, we played all kinds of games. Kick the can, you know, stuff like that. What else did we play?Johnny on the pony, Johnny on the pony..You know what that is? She don’t know…(looking at EM) On the fire hydrant, and everyone’s gotta jump on his back and try to make him fall. We played a lot of games, when we grew up it was a nice neighborhood..There was no computers, of course not. You had to add in your mind. We didn’t even have a television. That’s why we used to go out and play. No it was nice, it really was, it was nice around here.

Janet: We used to play cards, knuckles..knuckles..We used to play over here everyday, and Grandma would come out and go “Why can’t yous play on your own stoop, whattaya gotta play here for?” Because we live here, Grandma! People would come and have to get up to the house and we’d always have cards and we had to move and the people would get annoyed..cause we were sitting down playin’, but what else were you gonna do?

Anthony: When we were young we used to play stickball, or stoopball, you hit the ball against the stoop, or punchball. And when we grew up we were poor, in plain English, it’s the truth. When we played football, you know what we used for a football? You rolled up a newspaper, seriously, you taped it, and that was a football, we couldn’t afford a football..it’s true..and if we had a baseball, eventually the cover would fall off, we used to tape it up..yeah, we couldn’t buy another baseball, we were all poor. And the glove was falling apart..it’s true..now what, what do they call all these people around here now, they all got money, what are they, Yuppies? Right, they’re all Yuppies? No, I grew up in a good time, I’m glad I grew up when I did.

In the summer time, when it got very hot, nobody had air conditioning. Not like today. Everybody had a fan, that was all you had, was a fan. But, if you had a fire escape, you could go out and sleep on the fire escape.

Janet: Remember? Grandma used to feed us on the fire escape. My cereal, on the fire escape, every morning. And our favorite game was, what we played was jump rope, all day long. I didn’t need anything else. Grandma used to stand by the window and yell at us, “What are you doing? what are you doin?” Yeah, double dutch…All day, I could play jump rope all day long..double dutch. And be happy.

***************************************************************************

This piece is meant as a tribute to those long term residents who have sustained the Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York neighborhood for generations and are now in an increasing minority. The old guard is losing their sense of community. A new, affluent population, drawn by Park Slope’s popularity as one of America’s best neighborhoods, is swiftly overshadowing the working class.

The title of this body comes from the words of the philosopher Derrida that reflect on the experience of the loss of  “what I myself am not” and on the interiorization of the Other in his irrevocable absence.

***************************************************************************

Many warm thanks to Rachel Been, Anna Maria Barry-Jester, Kelly Lynn James, Jacob Silberberg, Tom Sullivan, Andrew D. Sullivan and John Westfall for assisting in the making of the street portraits, and an especially big thank you to Sana Manzoor for her assistance which was both generous and gracious.

For all the thoughtful feedback and editing help, thank you to Joe Colligan, Jason Eskenazi, Paul Fusco, Eugene Richards and Andrew D. Sullivan.

Thank you Jim Powers for loaning me your lens! and to the Burn community for going on this ride with me.

DAH..thank you from the beginning to the end. Way back when you wrote on Road Trips that you might have “a good idea…why not really “show our photographic hand…” in the most provocative way…so, here is my idea: i give out short assignments or projects….on an individual basis…at the end each photographer presents this work right here for us all to see…for example, i ask Erica if she has time to shoot portraits on…” and somehow that idea turned into this work..though after a much longer wait than you had in mind! Thank you sincerely for your ideas and energy and care and for all that you do.


Bio

Erica McDonald is mostly a self taught photographer, taking inspiration from a myriad of social documentary and portrait photographers. She has a strong belief in the importance of lineage in photography and working in a continuum.

Erica is a thankful recipient of a Keyholder Fellowship at the Lower East Side Printshop, and her work has been exhibited in New York and Paris including in Chelsea and by PowerHouse, at the burn gallery and the Camera Club of New York, and has been included in projections at LOOK3, Palm Springs Photo Festival and the Slideluck Potshow. Awards and nominations include IPA/Lucies, PX3, The NY Photo Awards and the Magnum Cultural Foundation EPF. Her work has been published in Mother Jones, Boston Magazine, YES! Magazine and is part of The Collector’s Guide to Emerging Art Photography. She loves dogs, large and small alike, and is based in NYC.

A larger selection of images from this project is available for publication as a book. Please inquire with me directly at erica@ericamcdonaldphoto.com


Related links

ericamcdonaldphoto.com


Editor’s note:

please only one comment per essay….

-david alan harvey

110 Responses to “erica mcdonald – the dark light of this nothing”


  • Very nice. Different. Somebody tell Koudelka he lost his dog and it was spotted in NY.

  • JONI…

    laughing…i thought the same thing when i saw that dog picture…

  • yesyesyes – great erica.. GREAT.. been looking forward to this for a long while and now it´s here it´s clear what you have been talking about trying to achieve.. and you did it.
    that´s inspired me on this fierce morning in the clouds.. feeling a little of the neuyawk..

    the blend of formal portraits, which i guess are the large format, and the street moments blend extremely well, aided by the dialogue.. this is one occasion when i think the vocals really sit comfortably, and knowing it is your own tuft you´re showing us added interest.
    really interesting way of introducing the piece with the text.. the whole thing feels extremely well crafted and thought through with real patience and foresight..

    a whole bunch of the photo deserve the second glance which good photography achieves.. my perspective is they needed to be up for longer.. take more time.. cigar kid with the hand buzzer.. snow on drain.. lots of photographs have stuck in mind and you´re bang on-the-money for catching those illusive, sharply observed moments and sights.

    it´s clear in this work how much you care about photography and people – it would have been easier to produce something much less successful.. avoid the large format.. rush through the streets.. shoot it digital.. cared less about the scanning.. yet what you have done feels crafted, even on a monitor, flowing, even if a little short on each image and produced with a real love and a respect for the environment you´re illustrating..

    well done.. just great.. look forward to seeing prints on a wall at some point
    enjoy.
    david

  • Excellent, excellent, essay. Beautiful. And the sound track truly works. I will not single out any photos above the others, for they all work together in marvelous harmony. If you want a hard critique, I am not the man to give it to you, as I can find no flaw in it.

    I see that Jim Powers is your friend and is honored in your acknowledgments. So maybe he will say something good about this essay – as well he should.

    Well, we will see.

    Keep it up.

  • I just immediately want to pick up my camera.

  • very real,very realistic,full of life and different emotions,it is like a fragment of the book! I like it :) Congratulations!

  • Erica. Some fantastic shots in here.
    I am struggling with viewing it as a coherent essay in the form its presented here, but the strength of a lot of the pictures is undeniable.
    I think its the mixing of formats and treatment that breaks up the flow for me.
    I hope this develops and ends up in print (where the finished work surely should be).

    John

  • I was sure to find role-models on this site.
    You certainly belong to them.

    I like the way of presentation. Music, the people speaking .. it creates an even more emotion of being there.
    Print. Yes, I would like to see the pictures in print, too. A slidehow is nice for the overall view and the flow, but with prints you can rest and take your own time.

    Thanks.
    Thomas

  • I loved many, many of the individual images. I lived in Park Slope a while back, for a few years, and when I’m missing being in NYC (in Melbourne now) I most often think of the Park Slope flavor, even though I’d lived in different parts of the city as well.
    3 seconds for each image, I feel, is too short. I wanted more time to savor, to linger.

  • Very very nice. Pure and unadulterated, captures the people well. Missing NY now.

  • Ok, now would you please give that book a go? Fast even? Thanks ;)

    Great work!

  • Beautiful, enlightening and inspiring.
    It was okay I guess ;)

  • Excellent work. The pacing is too fast, though. Leave the individual images up a little longer, not enough time to look at each one. I love the portraits. You’ve clearly taken a lot of time putting this together and it shows as a much more polished presentation than we often see here. I even wasn’t bothered by the audio, which I usually am. I would buy of book of from this project.

  • I love your essay, your wonderful photographs…. As I hope you know, I admire so your excellent eye and talent as a photographer.

  • Now I know what perfection looks and sounds like. Erica, this essay is so touching, so truth-filled, so real…and so incredibly beautiful. My dear, you took your time and just plain DID IT. Brava to you. I can’t wait to buy the book. But I want it to include a DVD of the sounds and voices that I can play while I’m reading it.

    Now what about getting videos and turning it into a short documentary film. I can see it done like Maisie Crow works, with a mix of video, stills and voices. YES!!!

    Patricia

  • This is lovely Erica. It’s definitely one of my favorite pieces on Burn thus far. One really feels drawn into Park Slope and all it’s intricacies. You can feel its soul and the souls of its inhabitants. It’s not easy tying together different photographic styles, but you’ve managed to successfully. I love the straight on portraits, accompanied by the details like the TV in the repair shop, followed by the more reportage-ish shots which play with layers. I love layers :-) Ending the essay with the last image is great. What a wonderful picture and overall metaphor.

    Bravo..

  • erica, you know what you just did?

    You just took me by the hand and led me around the neighborhood. And Im sat here in Australia. Thats how good that essay is.

    you nailed it.

  • @ Erica.
    What a really awesome essay. Touching.
    Winter pictures are the ones that I preferred as well as portraits in the Richard Avedon way…
    I’m bothered with the fade, to fast :-(,
    I don’t have enough time to look at every picture, so I have to play twice. That’s not the idea.
    I think with 4:30 would be great and not boring at all!! You can add more sound, more dialogue.
    I’ve said: “No, that’s all??, want to see more!!”

    Great! keep looking forward, cheers from Argentina
    pAtrIcIO m.

  • Erica,

    This is simply the best piece of work that I have seen on Burn. Like Jim, I need an extra few seconds to savour each image… but otherwise…. WOW!!!!!

    You have inspired me enormously and have set the bar in terms of what we can achieve in our work….

    Brilliant. I want the book!

    Steve

  • I finally agree with Jim Powers ;) Wonderful essay!

  • Great work Erica!
    Congrats,

    Armando

  • The Dark Light of This Wednesday morning caffeine stream pacing in my veins at the speed of Erica’s fantastical essay… getting the day started better than I could have imagined.. this work weaves through a dreamworld beautifully. My favorite. Erica you have a way.. a closeness and intimacy with your neighbors that is so powerful and rare… Thank you for this work.

  • I wanted to say, “Hey, Koudelka wants his dog back.” But too late.

    My impression was similar to what others have said. I like many of the images, including the portraits, but I got lost along the way. It felt disjointed and jarring sometimes, like when the guy with the nose ring popped up out of nowhere, and I found myself growing impatient. Maybe I’m getting to comfortable with clear themes and just need to work harder.

    I loved to bizarre dog right at the beginning. Koudelka can eat his heart out on that. ; )

  • Brava Erica,

    You have a rare sensitivity and it comes through in your work. You photograph with intuition while also acknowledging the legacies of the photographers whose lineage you carry. Brilliant job. These pictures stirred my heart this morning.

    You’ve got tricks up your sleeves!

  • erica.. saw it a couple of times, and ambivalent.

    on the good side, u bring several very good photographs. i do feel the artist here, a combination of a few magnum women (like frank and morath whom i love alot) and diane arbus. but this is not really surprising cause i already saw your website and loved it alot (i think already told u that ?!).

    now about the criticism… thematically, it is boring a bit. a kind of feeling that these have been done alot and seen alot, even if u r a good sample. no twists, i even felt that something is not coherent and more importantly, doesnt have enough impact, be it emotional, intellectual or aesthetic … kinda, it doesnt engage, and does not stay enough on any level. u tell about a place that is nothing special and nothing significant. so, to make an essay interesting u have to bring something from U. and u dont do it enough in my taste. aesthetic and photographic language is great but not authentic enough, too much magnum and diane arbus in the air.. the “narratives/motives” of your docu are also limited abit and too bounded to the place and moment.. not expendable fluently.

    sound… sorry but go and do movies, or if u want photo+sound, do it interestingly… the photographs are good enough without sound, and if something is missing (as i tried to explain my feeling in criticism), sound will not help there… sometimes it seems to me that people put sound just because the media and presentation allows them technologically, nice flirt, but usually boring and even disturbing. technological capabilities are great but do it interestingly. with or without criticism, u r talking in a real/strong/genuine photographic language, and that language has enough vocabulary and music within it…

    overall a very god essay, with traditional feel that i love alot… essay that deserves a serious criticism in this context

  • I didn’t realize this was to be up this morning, what a lovely surprise..

    First, really truly thank you to all who helped in ways large and small, and that includes burn for being here and all of you for helping me though…a happy Thanksgiving indeed. The than you to John Westfall should be Mike Westfall..

    I’m going to let your words and feedback settle in for awhile, I am touched and am reading and thinking…

    But I do want to say something about the pace / quickness and some of what a couple of you have alluded to as a disjointedness:

    I wanted the presentation to feel like this place feels to me – like a memory, like glimpses into something whole but not, non linear and about pieces of what was, slipping by, moving away quickly..people and things I wish I could have known longer.

    xo

  • Erica, well done!

    well worth the wait. love it. brilliant stuff. one of the very best i’ve seen on burn.
    strong compositions with a sensitive touch, depth, emotion, energy…

    wonderful…

    i really enjoyed this essay. first time in quite a while i’ve been turned on by new black & white photography. somehow reminded me of Deakin… moved a bit fast for me, but i guess that’s the big apple tempo for ya. (and we can always use the pause button) some lovely portraits, although not 100% sure about the mixed formats (a demon i’ve wrestled with). great to see all those verticals too, refreshing…

    again, well done

    big hug : )))

    sam

  • I’ve been wondering what this often alluded to project was all about. It was worth the wait. Many many strong photographs here, it would certainly hang together as a book, and I can see many of the singles ending up as supporting art for, say, the fiction section of the New Yorker. The thought and perseverence you put into this piece shows in every shot, in the pacing, in the sound track. That you had feedback from the likes of Eugene Richards and P. Fusco is impressive in and of itself.

    Congratulations. It’s totally “legit,” start to finish.

    As part of a larger question — where do you take a talent such as yours into the world? i.e., can one survive making pictures like this outside of Magnum and VII ? Or do you continue with a day job and do this for only the love of doing it?

    dq

  • erica,

    I think I know how you as a perfectionist have difficulty in letting something go…always wanting, thinking it might be just that little bit better.

    Thank you for letting this go. It’s wonderful.

    You nailed it.

    You and your work have and continue to inspire me to be a better person and a better photographer. Thank you.

    big hug.
    A.

  • Erica, yours is BY FAR my favorite piece on BURN, thus far! Because it is truly considered, from the heart, made of simple, human, accessible reality, but transformed by your magically poetic vision into an unique, everlasting testament. Made me cry. I applaud you as loudly as I am able! Thank you for refreshing the photographic air we live in!

  • Erica, this is lovely. Heartfelt and very polished. Who knew you were so good at multimedia??

  • Erika I always liked your portraits.. Good Job… I will see it again when back to house.

    Laredo

  • Beautiful…and most of all there is you in it. Finally.. you abandoned the research of perfection without forgetting all the road you have done. That’s the way to do something special.

  • rhythm
    and
    grace…
    wonderful presentation..
    make the next jump to film:)
    I like the visual journey you took me on,
    great inspiring imagery…
    full of heart,
    simple
    and
    complicated…..
    beautiful work….
    **
    did you ever shoot any of this in color? any desire to?
    **

  • Erica,

    In addition to what’s already been said I love the title, love the audio.
    All your hard work has really paid off. There is so much depth here.
    Just lovely.

  • Very nice piece, Erica.

    What struck me was that all the images,apart from a few of the ‘formal’ portraits were
    shot vertically.

    Compositionally, most worked for me but the vertical format somehow left me feeling
    a little ‘closed in’ as if I wanted to see more of what was happening to the left and right

    The audio, for me, was a good complement to the images and I appreciated that it was the
    subjects narrating the piece and not the photographer

  • Erica, All I can say is WOW!!!

    really amazing work. I love the mixture of 35mm with Medium format and the mix in the audio is also done amazingly. But the photographs themselves are beautiful and you know I love Brooklyn myself and my Brooklyn project is totally different than yours, which is good, but really I am blown away. Can’t wait to see the book, which seems like will happen soon.

  • BOOM! very enjoyable. the final sequence of images (from the funeral onwards) is really knockout. cheers.

  • A brilliant, shining star of the changing face of Brooklyn neighborhoods.
    This hits a spot in my heart because I lived and loved in Fort Greene for 5 years, just over Atlantic Avenue from Park Slope. While I lived there, I witnessed many changes, as the price of Brownstones rocketed to seven figures and the incessantly increasing number of gentrified baby carriages caused traffic problems in the sidewalks. At this same time, Bruce Ratner had proposed his Atlantic yards project, citing that his skyscraper buildings (which would dwarf the tallest building in Brooklyn, the Williamsburg Savings Bank, also in downtown Brooklyn) would create jobs and a scaled living situation from the rich to the poor. The proposal also included the development and erection of an 18,000 seat arena for the NBA team New Jersey Nets, who I believe should just stay in New Jersey. The arena would be located right in the middle of clusterf**k traffic nightmare Atlantic Avenue, which is congested from Washington Avenue down to 4th Avenue, where the dirty rich Ratner also built the Atlantic Center.
    Ok, I digress. My point is not that traffic jams and baby carriages change the face of Brooklyn; it’s that the influx of the rich cause a more rapid inertia of inflation in the cost of living, pushing out the lifers who were born and raised in these neighborhoods. The lifeblood and soul and history of these neighborhoods remains alive within these people…but they take this with them when they must relocate.
    Maybe I’m guilty of adding to the problem, having been a transplant myself. But no, that’s not correct. I was an avid participant in the art scene in my neighborhood and supporter of local business and Develop, Don’t Destroy. I lived in a woman’s brownstone who grew up in that house and bartended at Frank’s Cocktail Lounge on Fulton Street, which has been there for more than 50 years and is a benchmark in the history of Downtown Brooklyn and is a scene right out of the seventies.
    I think that the problem lies with people who have no intention or cares about being a part of a neighborhood, or realizing its history or what it’s about. These are people who are not adding anything by being present; they are merely taking up space and replacing those who have roots…simply because they have more money.

    Erica, your essay touched me. I agree that the pace was a bit fast, but other than that, it’s obviously a labor of love. Thank you for being present…and making a difference by telling a story and preserving a neighborhood.

  • Joni – re the koudelka dog..I have a thing for animals, and certainly for lost ones. I spend a lot of time trying to reunite them with their owners, I walk through the streets whispering the names of animals I see on the ‘help me find’ signs people post when they lose an animal..so imagine my delight when I spotted koudelka’s dog, even if he lost one leg since koudelka had him ;)

    David B – “that´s inspired me..” what more could I ask for? except for “it´s clear in this work how much you care about photography and people” I really struggle with certain images that I take, I feel they should show how much I love the people I photograph. Sometimes I am not sure if certain images do, and even if those images are successful in other ways I can’t show them to the world..so your comment means a lot to me..

    Frostfrog, you are gentleman, if you are a gent? In printmaking art school we had bagels and coffee at our critiques. I once accidentally sliced my hand so badly cutting a bagel before my own critique and it was a huge relief because I didn’t have to focus my energy on any possible “hard critique” that came in my session, I could think about my hand instead while people critiqued my work.

    Bjarte – that may be the highest compliment. I experience that feeling a lot, when looking at work I admire. that’s the feeling that kept me going when I was tired of shooting this – I’d see someone else’s amazing work and be motivated all over again.

    marikinski, eva – i do so hope this becomes a book..

    john gladdy – the mixing of formats has been a big question all along. for me it sits okay in multimedia, but I have been think a lot about what the different formats mean for a book. DAH and Jason E and I have talked about some options, like having them in separate sections, or showing the portraits as contact sheets..

    Thomas, Jared, Vicky, david_bacher, fotorich, pomara, pAtrIcIO m., Steve M, joao, Harry, Armando, andrew b… xo

    Robert – when did you live here? The change has been SO significant. Part of what took me as long as it did to photograph this is the fact that there is so little of the old Park Slope left. Some days I would walk my boundaries over and over and see nothing that didn’t smack of the new affluence and culture and attitude. It’s a lovely place to eat out and but boutique clothing and go to mommy and me events now, lots of ‘luxury’ hi rise developments under way…What touched me so much was the old school’s willingness to try to accept the new, but sadly it is the new that has a hard time finding the value of the old.

    Jim – you can mute the audio and go through the images at your own place, pause unpause, if you want. You get a free signed copy. Also soon will put up a still gallery on my website.

    Audrey – I should have thanked you too. It was you in the beginning who helped guide my direction on the 35mm. thank you xo and thank you to Bob too..for a bit of early encouragement…

    Patricia – your words are so touching. here’s the truth about a video component. I worked with TWO different professional video people on this, at two different times. Though both talented, generous folk, neither was able to capture something that fit. Bottom line I think is that I have to shoot it myself. I bought some Super 8 bw tri x to do just that. But I really need to spend some time thinking about what and how…

    Lance ! so glad you caught the ‘dreamworld’..that’s what I was after all along really, between a memory and a dream

    Andrew Gray – that’s Snoopy. he has one eye. I don’t see him often but I taught him how to pee on command. If I do a little moonwalk he will pee. and then he moon walks.

    andrew sullivan – tricks, eh? :))

    victor – I’m not sure what to say, I will take your words to heart and consider what more I could be doing. You know, when I was very young my most favorite legend of a photographer said something to me that was meant to be a gift, encouraging, about what she could see as the essence of my ‘style’ – but because it referenced others it caused me a lot of anguish and I stopped photographing for over a decade. We all do have a individual voice, though the effect of influence is unmistakeable. At this point I have chosen to celebrate lineage, but of course am a little concerned that for you – someone who has high regard for my work – that something is missing. The only answer I have is that I, for myself and a little for you, will continue to find my most authentic self, through out this long marvelous journey. what more can we do as photographers but honor those who came before us while committing to our personal truths?

    sam – I don’t know know the work of Deakin. Will look now. Glad you noticed that the essay is shot only in verticals! except for the medium and large format portraits. I swear I see vertically. Ever see the film The Vertical Ray of the Sun? http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1291518233/

    PAUSE

  • Well done Erica, you have obviously put a lot of time in to this project and it shows. I really enjoyed your work—the portraiture especially! It is great to see it up on burn. Give yourself a big pat in the back, you deserve it!

  • sister :))))))))))))))))))))!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    i will break the 1 comment rule (again) later tonight…im working on the brew (long) to leave you…running to darkroom, then in a few hours will leave you enough words to fill burn for a month ;))))..
    so so proud of you….

    more later

    hugs
    b

  • A magnificent essay!

    I love the mixing of genres, the pacing and the soundtrack.

    More than anything, I’m deeply impressed by the way that the whole body of work seamlessly takes its place in the longer meta-narrative of New York City photography. The city as hero, as a character. Even though the images are clearly set in the “now”, they have fixed this moment – our moment – in such a way that one can almost remember it wistfully, from some time in the future when we’re all older and (hopefully) wiser…

    Kudos!

  • Just to add… The mixed formats really don’t bother me, it is something I am working on personally and like to see… multimedia or not. Personally I don’t think lot of vertical images sit so well in a multimedia presentation, I guess due to the “video” format, but this is the way you shoot so there is no getting around that. The multimedia presentation is only one part of you work though… I too would love to see some nice big prints and a book!!

  • muy bueno erica!!!
    un saludo

  • Loved it Erica, just loved it. Obviously a labour of love; you remind us that the Big Apple, New York, is really a number of neighbourhoods, of communities. The written intro is just perfect: it adds to the experience and to the photography. Same with the audio: just right, not overpowering, not too sentimental; just right.

    As for the book: I do hope that you are going to include the dialogue with the appropriate photograph?

    The photographs don’t need to be adorned, far from it, but the dialogue does help to convey a spirit of community and neighbourhood.

    Worth the wait, Erica.

    Best wishes,

    Mike.

  • emcd,

    i should preface i am not a photographer… the aesthetics, compositions, lighting, ‘wonderful’ portraits i have yet to learn. therefore since i am a ‘feel’ being…

    your essay made me feel erm… upset. (thinking) yes upset. and i got done with your essay feeling like i should be. of being deposed, violated, transplanted… not belonging where i should belong.

    and i get you… even the tiniest little detail of the speed of your presentation you have pored over. fleeting.. should i look again… did i see his dog? … was he the one who said that? … feelings i am left with of fleeting acquaintances it seems… as if i should be there longer … but it is not my place.

    i like your photographs… is this what people call style? personal, unobtrusive but there. but then what do i know.

  • Erica, thank you!
    That was a real beautiful. some really poetic shots.
    the blend worked. loved it

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