Friday, January 10, 2014

Random Thoughts

Yesterday I went into New York City to attend the opening of a show at the Leica Gallery. Photographer Harvey Stein  has been documenting the people of New York for more than forty years. The two series showcased are his photographs of Coney Island that were the subject of his book aptly titled Coney Island, 40 Years, and his series of portraits taken in Harlem that are the subject of his most recent book Harlem Street Portraits. The exhibit will be on display until February 22. It's a testament to Harvey's commitment and dedication to documenting life in New York, and is well worth a visit.

Life comes in bunches, good and/or bad. Right now I'm enjoying a burst of the good. Currently I have a show of a series I shot twenty years ago that was focused on the last performing years of my first musical mentor, Bill Monroe, on display at Unique Photo in Fairfield, NJ.

This Sunday, January 12th, is the opening of a show at the Jewish Community Center of MetroWest called 'Judaism: A Visual Conversation' which is a group show in which I have twenty nine photographs that are part of my ongoing Manhattan Diaspora project. The show will be on display through February 23rd.

I was recently invited, along with two other photographers, to participate in a showcase event at B&H Photo in New York (THE preeminent photography store in New York) which will be presented on February 17th in their Event Space. I haven't yet made the selection of images I'll present, but a good portion of them will be selected from my Manhattan Diaspora series. A large portion of the initial set of images taken twenty years ago on the Lower East Side can be viewed on my website in the galleries by that name.

I shot this image yesterday evening while strolling on Broadway just before I went to the Leica Gallery to see Harvey's show. The Fuji X-Pro1 is a tool with which I feel completely in harmony and it's been a joy to use. It has never let me down, even on dark frigid New York winter nights.