Category: Work-in-Progress

This was the first time I carrried my camera to church. I went there feeling nervous about the whole idea of taking pictures. I did not know how they would turn out or if any of them would be visible. I sat in my usual seat in the back. The  think the back is usually for late comers, I wasn’t late. I preferred the last row. I tried to photograph as much as I could I somehow found enough courage to just ignore  people staring at me. For a person who likes to just blend in the woodwork the attention was not good. I tried not to distract the congregation from the service and overall I don’t think I did. I did not talk to much people, only one lady. I asked to take her picture she agreed but wanted me to wait until we were out of the santuary. Church was basically over, a woman was just reading the notices. Then she changed her mind and I photograph her in the church. She sat beside me in the back.

As I believe I’ve previously mentioned, Buenos Aires Tour was a project that invited three artists to provide content for a book on Buenos Aires’ neighborhoods, on its life. The final product looked like a tourist guide, but it was not.  Negroni, who i think was quite overwhelmed after witnessing the performance piece that CAGE UNDER COVER had been turned into, told me that Jorge Macchi, a photographer, had proposed the idea.

 

Macchi invited a musician and Negroni to join him following the cracks of a piece of glass over a map of Buenos Aires. The lines were treated like a fictional subway line, and forty-six “stations” where invented.  They took photos, collected found objects, and recorded sounds, including the political protests of recent street demonstrations, and linked them.

 

According to Negroni, however, Macchi didn’t want the three of them going out together. Each one of them was supposed to go to the selected places by themselves, whenever they wanted, and write, compose or photograph whatever they wanted. The subsequent museum installation offered the visitors eight itineraries. Text that wasn’t specifically related to the pictures–except for the fact that it was inspired  by the same neighborhood–complemented them. People could activate the accompanying sounds only if they chose to, but, as everything else, those sounds didn’t attempt to represent the same information offered by images or words.

 

Why not related? I asked, but Negroni didn’t think about it twice. It was all about chance, she said. Things happen anew all the time. Besides, I understood, neither the photos nor the captions wanted to become a documentary, the kind that when including some things also exhiles other. The project didn’t aspire to cut a definitive pattern to define the city.  

So, Negroni went to the previoulsy agreed-upon sites and walked them, not exhaustively. She later worked on prose poems that were linked to various street corners of the city (not necesarilly all the ones she visited).

 

For me, it was surprising to find out that, after all, it was not a free-for-all. Because common themes emerged. They found similar images repeating themselves across the diferent points they visited. That was the emphasis of their finished piece. The common points served as entry places that gave the audience the chance to create their own itinerary, to go further than the eight already proposed ones.

 

 

           

I sit on the pier in late summer, a familiar chill cuts through the warmth of the season, characteristic of the air above bodies of water.  It is evening time, and looking out upon the water and landscape, I feel as though I have discovered a secret. Lady Liberty, glowing green, appears as a sentinel, granting me permission to stay for awhile. Later I find out that Red Hook is the only part of New York City that, on land, has a full frontal view of the Statue.

 

           My friend tells me stories of actually jumping into the river as kids, and hopping from the rickity posts jutting out of the water. But even this pier, the secret of the Red Hook children, has had dramatic improvements. There are no missing woods slats, as I am told there had been throughout my friend’s childhood. Like much of Red Hook, it has been given a major facelift, making way for a new generation of offspring.  A giant Ikea store now straddles the water’s edge like a Colossus. A free water taxi and Ikea shuttle provide an express service, shooting the newcomers from pier to pier, or from train to pier, with no stops in between.

 

These are some photographs that I have taken in at 5 Pointz. I’m not sure if black & white will work with graffiti so I plan to use a digital camera. I also plan to photograph many of the artists that created the murals.

Interviews in brief:

Ilya- 20. Attends Baruch. Event is not living up to his expectations. Cold. Came with the intention to look at people and make friends. Participates in other online communities (underground NYC).

Johnathon- Dressed as the stock market. 1st event. Part of several online communities. 27 years of age Expects a fun march and to meet people. The reason for the mask is that it represents us when we should be representing ourselves.

Ed- Blue eyes. Expects “craziness”. 28. From Williams burgh.

Michael- 21 years old, first event

Smurf Waldo- Danny. 20 years old. Not first event. Expects a lot of partying.

Morgan- girl in black. 26 years old. 1st event. Loves it.

Mehe- Green person. 27 years old. Didn’t get disappointed– event lived up to her expectations and more. Part of multiple internet communities.

Questions I have in mind:

Is this more about social debauchery than a social movement toward community?

What is the function?

If the function is just to “party” than what social implications does this have?

Can a mass community function orderly or does it collapse on itself and hence ceases to be a community?

Can an “internet community” meet and maintain its “internet community” status?

Initial feelings from the event:

Disappointed. Event was more about aimlessness than in previous events. Lots of wandering around. From previous events I could always feel a deeper purpose to the event but here there was nothing to scratch beneath the surface.

For some it’s every day life, for others it’s a transition between day and night. Like a Vampire by night human by day, many transgenders are able to sustain a normal life by day but change their gender at night. You would never see him like this during sunlight, he wouldn’t even show a picture of who he looks like during the day. Godiva, as she calls herself wants to keep his underground life secretive for everyone other than those in his transgender community.