#362, Upper East Side, NYC
"Glamorous" is not the first word that springs to mind when describing a typical day on the &7 beat. It can be physically rigorous or leisurely and meandering -- depending on if there's a deadline looming -- but taking pictures of buildings and numbers is a pretty straightforward activity. No vapid fashion models. No flying bullets. No rubbernecking for candid shots of humanity at its best or worst. Take people out of the equation and you can generally get away with photographing anything -- provided you're not speeding into the Lincoln Tunnel.
I do get the odd suspicious bystander every now and then who will accost me and ask why I'm taking a picture of their neighbor's mailbox, but all in all, it's a drama-free endeavor. So it was strange to find myself one day on the Upper East Side in a paparazzi moment, tiptoeing through the affluent blocks of apartments, peering through locked gates at hidden numbers, crouching down to get just the right angle. This one emanated a bit of the Greta Garbo "vanting to be alone" aloofness, so I trod as gently as I could.
9 comments:
It also fits with closing the final chapter on &7. The ivy is taking over the number as the year end is your project! Brilliant photo- albeit intentional, or not.
The evasive ones are the best.
I agree about the evasive ones being extra fabulous. This one has the feel of "The Secret Garden" to me-- which, along with "Charlotte's Web" are two of my very favorite children's books.
English Ivy! I HATE English Ivy. I battled it for years around one of the homes I lived in. It never retreated but came back for more butchering. I HATE English Ivy!!!
Oh. Uh. Sorry. Bad memory.
GDP - I think that's what they call serendipity. But I'll take credit for it anyway. ; )
Radge - "Stealth Becomes Her"? Glad you liked it.
Jackie - The Secret Garden was one of my old faves, too. I still dream of having a wild, overgrown garden someday with a secret gate. Speaking of Charlotte, you must've dug 360.
Hi Pierre - I guess it's one of those things that looks good from afar... not so much up close. Someday when I get my English ivy, I will remember your words of warning and smile ruefully.
The postman probably sides with Pierre, for mine, the constant tending is a gardening joy.
I am starting a grandparent's "trunk" and both those books will be stashed therein.
Yup - those books are tried and true. Loved Charlotte's Web. And loved discovering E.B. White's essays many years later. His collection "Here is New York" is a delicious book.
'Stealth Becomes Her.' I'm having that.
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