Category Archives: Assignment Six – Final Project

Since holiday are around the corner and many people are shopping for gifts. So I thought about taking photos window decoration on different stores. I am sure that all of the store are focusing on how the appearance of their store to their customers. Thus, sellers are making sure that they are grasping buyers attention to promote their items and to grow their sale.

To discover one’s own life, love, and passion is hard, but she has found it at a very young age. Her name is Annette and she is currently a senior in high school. Music has played a very big role in her life ever since she was born. Her parents had influenced her into this path. They had started to teach her how to play the piano themselves when she was young and then sent her piano school to learn professionally. Her music sense is so strong she can even play the piano at heart without having it physically in front of her. Playing the piano is not the only thing that she does musically. She writes lyrics in her free time, still collects CDs, and loves to sing! So musically driven, she is planning to continue her interests as her major in college.

The flower district at West 28th street and 6th Avenue, holds a variety of businesses all dedicated to selling plants, flowers, and their accessories. In the winter months wreaths, Holly, and Christmas trees can be found in almost every store and filling the sidewalks for outdoor sales.

However, it is a precarious business. For every store owner, the need to move the product quickly is essential to making money. The cold weather makes it hard to sell traditional flowers year round. Unfortunately, flower shops are beginning to close down, as less people can afford to pay the expensive price of real flowers. Because of this, stores are expanding their products to include more flower accessories such as ribbons, glass and ceramic pots, and also fake plants.

Stapleton on Staten Island is not well known outside of Staten Island and so it is the focus of my final project. The area is mostly minorities, such as Hispanics, African Americans, and Sri Lankans. It is home to a number of Spanish and Sri Lankan restaurants, as well as a local music and arts scene on Van Duzer street that attracts young kids and adults alike on Staten Island. The area is mostly poor, but when one goes uphill towards St Pauls, there are large, well kept homes overlooking the area. It is a place of contrast and far more urban than one would expect for Staten Island.

Background on Indian Weddings…

Traditional Hindu wedding ceremonies can last for days and involve much ritual in which may be understood only by the priest conducting the service. This ceremony is considerably shorter and is intended to be understandable even to a non-Indian audience, making it suitable for intercultural or mixed Hindu/non-Hindu marriages.

Hindu weddings are supposed to take place outside, on the earth, under a canopy known as a mandap. If that’s not possible, you can build a mandap inside and pretend you’re outdoors. Seating under the mandap can be on the ground (carpets or mats would be a good idea) or on chairs.

Front and center under the mandap is the sacred fire. The fire can be small and confined to a brazier or dish for safety.

Traditionally, the bride wears a red or red and white sari. The sari should be draped modestly over her hair. The groom wears a kafni (long shirt extending to the knees) with pijamo (leggings) or dhoti (sort of an overgrown loincloth). The groom might also wear a turban.

Of course, in an adapted ceremony like this one great liberties can be taken with wardrobe. One rule which shouldn’t be broken is that anyone who enters the mandap or wedding canopy must have on sandals or slip-on shoes which can be easily removed (no shoes in the mandap!). In addition, it’s a good idea to avoid much black.

One feature of the bride’s wardrobe which has become popular abroad is the use of henna or mehndi to decorate her hands and feet. It’s said that you can tell how well a new bride is being treated by her in-laws from how long it takes for the mehndi to wear off. Mehndi treatments are increasingly available in salons.

Brief background on Jessie & Nick…

Jessie and Nick are both Americans, with Indian heritage and Scottish heritage, respectively. They met each other while they were attending Columbia University’s Medical School back in 2006. Jessie is a doctor at NYU Langone Medical Center and Nick is a dentist with his own office in the Upper West Side.

Hejsan or Hello in Swedish!

After five years of operation, FIKA gained its’ recognition from an enormous amount of New York’s coffee lovers. At FIKA, it is more than just a coffee. Unlike Americans that take their coffee to go, Swedish love to spend some moments to indulge in conversations and relaxation with their friends and coworkers with a cup of great coffee. On top of that, most of the Swedish will pair their coffee with their famous sweet and delicious pastries. Hence, it is no surprise that the word ‘fika’ means to take a coffee break in Swedish.

FIKA Espresso Bar does not only promise the exceptional taste and quality of their coffee but also in their chocolates- or choklad in Swedish- made by their very own world renown’s pastry chef and chocolatier, Håkan Mårtensson. Mårtensson, the gold medalist of 2008 Culinary Olympic, is well known in Europe for his outstanding flavors, exquisite craftsmanship on all of his choklads. Being a fan of his creation, I would really recommend anyone to try any of the chocolates- my favorite is Adam.

Furthermore, FIKA also offers full breakfast and lunch menus as well. They serve some of the Swedish classic dishes and, best of all, everything is made in house and fresh daily. Not only that, for those who like to have some touch of taste of Swedish gourmet, this Swedish espresso bar also features some wide selections of homemade jams, cookies, and raspberry vinegar- all made accordingly to the traditional Swedish recipes!

For those who have visited FIKA, you know the indulgence is real and for those who have not, make a trip today.

Let’s have a FIKA…

FIKA Espresso Bar

66 Pearl St. (next to Broad St.)

New York, NY 10004

Tel: 646.837.6588

In the abandoned Brooklyn parking lots and railway paths is where you’ll find their mark. The canvases which are found in places that could be parks or even public, evolving galleries are filled with creations during the darkest hours of the night, under pseudonyms, illegally. The artists are not exactly alone though. In these same spaces where they dangerously trespass to express themselves in paint are also the likes of homeless people and drug addicts. The walls are masterpieces but the ground is littered with garbage, needles, rubble and remanence of “sleep setups”.

The spaces are being utilized in a very polarized sense; a place for the artists to work in large scale and for night dwellers to do drugs. One of the places is the railway which runs along avenue H in Brooklyn. With so many miles of what could be a beautiful public place, perhaps a park like Manhattans Highline, it makes little sense as to why it remains the way it does. It could remain a space for the artists without the midnight climb or the constant looking over ones shoulder for authorities as well as become so much more as it is picturesque all on its own during the day. The city should be paying more attention to the spaces they leave unattended as they are becoming a petri dish for criminal activity both of the innocent and dangerous varieties.

Movement is one of the best things to photograph, especially something as graceful as dancing. Photographer is my friend, Petey, who has been a dancer since childhood. She is from Arkansas originally, and has taken a variety of dance classes and has also taught classes, and choreographed several dances. Moving to NYC, she hopes to become a dancer of some sort, and make it big. I photographed her during one of her practice sessions where she practiced all sorts of dance to different music. In the end, she is one person who has total passion for dancing.

The resurgence of burlesque has been percolating in the underground nightclubs for the past 10 years, but lately the neo-burlesque movement has taken mainstream stages at venues like Joe’s Pub, and has inspired upscale niche clubs such as The Box. Miss Clams Casino, “one delicious dish” as she calls herself-and the subject of this photo essay- began her career in burlesque right after witnessing her first performance. Seven years later, she’s still having a blast, now a producer and performer Clams can be seen rolling her suitcase full of props and costumes through the New York City subways up to four times a week and hitting a variety of local hang outs including, Littlefield, Public Assembly, or Nurse Bettie. From 1840-1960 burlesque served a very different social function than it does today. Once it pushed the boundaries of what was taboo, now it is an homage to the art of seduction in a society obsessed with sexuality and nudity. The neo-burlesque community takes its job very seriously, celebrating the body in all its unconventional beauty, reinventing a lost art.