all words and photos by Dakota Fine
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I'm stealing the name for this post from Lexie Moreland, of WWD fame, former resident of the District, photog extraordinaire, beloved by many here. When she transitioned to New York she promised me she was to start a weekly(?) column by this name, NYC: Not Your City. So here I am, stealing it, because well, it's a great tag, and in the hopes that she will pick up where I leave off...
I traveled to New York this past weekend for several reasons, none of which are of paramount importance, dear reader. But suffice to say, there are many things to do and see in New York, and being that it is just a short 4 hour jaunt from DC to neighboring Gotham, it makes for the perfect playground, an escape into the seamy urban abyss.
In photographs, my story is a selective one. This is not an exhaustive expose ad nauseum detailing all the crevices found or the extravagant apartments seen (and believe me, there was one that defined splendor), really I found my most compelling subject the sky, and you will know why shortly.
I began my journey to New York trailing up-and-coming DC rock band, US Royalty, who are soon to release a video or two, along with a much anticipated album. Finally. As the sun set in Brooklyn, the band had just finished loading into a divey bar a couple blocks off of Bedford called the Glasslands. We settled into a table outside and took in the summer air, ordering a Blackberry milkshake and two-for-one ciders.
The event was a regular Brooklyn hipster-fest put on in conjuction with a Vice Magazine issue release party and Done to Death Projects a management emissary for US Royalty and other bands, most notably Cartel, of MTV "Band in the Bubble" fame. The opened artists studio directly adjacent to the club made for an interesting, if voyeur-driven spectacle for the crowd milling about outside, as people flitted in and out.
Variously paying little attention to which band was actually playing I couldn't really tell you what Seasick sounded like, but the lead singer was wearing a Michael Jackson-esque sequined top...
US Royalty eventually took to the stage sometime after midnight to very little fanfare, very low lighting, and a sound engineering job that desperately called for dialing up the vocals. An open trash can adorned the front of stage left, directly before lead-guitarist Paul Thornley, a nice touch. I have never seen anything like it to be honest, but it wasn't totally unexpected, after all, the band members had already regaled me with stories of Jesse Bishop (frontman for DC art-punk band, Exactly) waking up in the balcony, locked into the club after a night of partying and performing at this very venue.
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The atmosphere inside the club was thick with humidity, with tiny Colt 45 bottles littering the interior due to the free giveaway for early-comers. Nicky Digital was there, New York's most prolific nightlife documentarian, he might have even snapped a couple of yours truly alongside the aforementioned Lexie Moreland, of WWD fame.
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Venturing out the next day, I was late to get my start, partying in New York until 5am tends to take it all out of me. But I traveled down to the South Street Seaport nevertheless, to catch a purportedly (as twittered) free show from Chester French and Kid Cudi put on by Paper Magazine. As the crowds gathered, I met up with some DC luminaries in the likes of dynamic DJ duo Cassidy & Fabiana. But just as the show was beginning to get underway, the clouds above Gotham began to swirl ominously and the stage crew came on to cover all the equipment with tarps. I lost interest in the performance that was likely not to happen anytime soon and quickly shifted my eyes to the heavens.
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In the end, the clouds unleashed what amounted to not much of a storm, but I made my way uptown, having lost interest in music due to the visual splendor surrounding me. As the sun went down that day, it lit up the skies above Gotham, and perched rooftop in the West Village I captured the fireworks as they colored the sky.
Though it is not my city dear reader, New York is always good to me. A city I love to visit...
Previously in Tangents:
- 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
- 11/2: PHOTOS: TAXLO Halloween (feat. Chain Gang of 1974)
- 10/10: #OccupyWallStreet
- 8/10: PHOTOS: Lawn Mover Racing, Eastern Seaboard Regionals @ Bowles Farm
- 7/26: Special List: Things the BYGays Want Now That We Can Marry In DC (and NY!)
- 7/20: PHOTOS: Artscape
- 7/19: Miho Hatori's Guide to New York City
- 4/11: Cirque Du Soleil: Totem (A Review)
- 12/29: War, Reenacted
- 12/29: What in Hell is Slaughterama?!?
God loves a cheerful giver.
peeps, puh-lease stop over-saturating and f'ing with your photos in photoshop. believe me, everyone is tired of this lazy crutch. just take inherently more interesting photos. duh.
...or better yet, learn to take an actual "good photo."
Lived in NYC for 5 years. Love these shots! They capture it in the perfect way.
Love your pics' style btw. They capture sound and smell..not merely good photos - great.
for the record, my post-production techniques very rarely include a bumping up of the "saturation" slider, but i definitely do work in post-production.
to each his own steve. duh.
oh, by the way... did you see this (http://bit.ly/PbriR) though? you might find it inherently interesting.
did people get up on the wrong foot today or something?
Ay, dude. Your stuff is real proper. Glad you got great photos of the sky last weekend b/c it was kind of insane. Next time you're in BK, hooooolla.
great photos. a real treat.
from what everyone is saying the sky must have been amazing over new york this weekend.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/30/mamatis-clouds-turn-nyc-s_n_223513.html
Those sky photos are fucking kick ass!!!
I have one of your previous sky photos from DC as my computer background (with row houses, before the TVOTR concert I think).
Cool band photos too!
You should take less pictures of people posing though. They always look pretentious. I just don't understand why there always needs to be so many pics of people posing with drinks and stuff.
Again, beautiful sky photos!
yes, Dakota, you are inherently interesting.
totally talked to svet about starting my column this week. thanks for the headstart.
Dakota - think you look a little like Chuck Bass in that photo. Which is good.
Sky photos are awesome. Almost make me want to visit that shithole, almost.
As it was I took the Zee bridge to avoid it in its entirety on the way back.
you guys want to see something "inherently" interesting?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/africa/02plane.html?hp
yo, those photos are unreal dakota. good eye mate, good eye.
I'm looking forward to participating in this particular post, but first I will go upstairs and sit down with myself at the pool and have a chat.
Pax
ooh the lovely view down south second st! ps williamsburger is gross.
I was in NYC this weekend as well, getting married. Ended up going to see Blonde Redhead on Friday night, pretty decent show that was free and inbetween the rain.
I don't think the pictures were oversaturated that much, the sky was fucking weird as hell that evening.
love n. digital
Those cloud shots are spectacular.
gorgeous, dakota. GORGEOUS.
No extra saturation ? right !? , and what is this crutch bullshit trend of using the 'Presence slider from Lightroom' all the time.
Andrew, is being a jerk your crutch? Shooting RAW generally gives a relatively linear curve and a lot less color vibrance than is in the camera. Furthermore, there are *three* presence sliders in lightroom, one is vibrance, one is saturation and the other is clarity. Making these adjustments one way or another is no more a crutch than using a different contrast filter when printing a photo using an enlarger. There is no "real" or "true" image, stop being so fucking full of yourself and think for a half second.
That said, the photos above are mostly afflicted with some sort of tone mapping/HDR style effect that I personally can't stand. Plenty of people love it though...
Although I wouldn't say exactly how, some photos do feel overdone indeed. But if that’s what others like... I personally like the booby chick portrait best.