Bluejake

An Abandoned House in Midwood

jake — 2009-11-16T17:17:30-05:00

Yesterday we had to drive out to Sheepshead Bay High School to score some swine flu vaccine (Karen is 9-months pregnant, so she needed it.) On the way out on Ocean Parkway, I noticed this boarded up house— I think the enormous tree in front caught my eye. On way back, we happened to pass the same corner, so I jumped out and grabbed the picture.

Scenes From the NYC Street Advertising Takeover

jake — 2009-10-29T21:34:07-05:00

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Last Sunday was the second NYCSA, an event organized by the Public Art Campaign to oppose the proliferation of illegal advertising billboards around the city. I followed a team of whitewashers as they whited-out six billboards in SoHo- and later in the day, I photographed different teams of artists using the billboards as blank slates for their art. Most of the pieces didn't last long: the billboard company had teams out postering all day, and had taken back most of the spots within a couple of hours of the whitewashers hitting them. Personally, I prefer the billboards just painted white- I think they photograph better that way, and I don't like drawing an equivalency between illegal advertising and illegal art.

Looking South from the Newtown Wastewater Treatment Plant

jake — 2009-10-17T16:29:50-05:00

Another shot from last weekend's OHNY peregrinations. More at Gothamist.

Midtown Powerhouse

jake — 2009-10-10T16:53:00-05:00

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I went through all the Open House New York sites and only two seemed really interesting: this powerhouse on 53rd street, and the Newtown Creek Water Treatment Plant up in Greenpoint. So this morning I went up to the powerhouse— but when I showed up there were like 100 people outside, and only 20 were getting in for the tour. So I used my press pass and skipped the line, which really delighted everyone who wasn't getting in. I narrowly avoided getting strangled to death, and by the time I got inside, the tour was already well underway. So I skipped that and just walked around by myself— there were some cool dusty spots, particularly in the basement and up by the roof.

Summer Outtakes

jake — 2009-09-09T14:44:26-05:00

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Here are some outtakes from a low-key summer in Brooklyn.

The Bronx River and the Westchester Avenue Bridge

jake — 2009-08-26T21:47:49-05:00

Over the weekend, the Nates and I went up to the South Bronx check out this old flooded railroad spur we'd read about in the Times. We found it down below St. Mary's Park, and after some trekking, managed to find our way in and up it for a few blocks before the mud blocked our way. Truth be told, there really wasn't much to see: just a flooded, foul trench stretching about six blocks before it goes under the park. After we got out, I took the guys up a few stops on the 6 to the corner of Westchester and 163rd, where we looked at this cool abandoned Cass Gilbert railroad station, and spent some time in a little park south of the bridge. [More about the station at FNY and The Times.]

August in LA

jake — 2009-08-21T21:15:29-05:00

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On account of being pregnant, Karen is only allowed to fly through the end of this month-- so we decided to spend ten days out in Los Angeles. She was pretty busy with family stuff, so I had a lot of time to do my thing: hit the museums, look for streetart, go on a ton of hikes, and drive around aimlessly for hours. I read somewhere that when Garry Winograd moved to LA from NYC at the end of his life, he basically lost it, and ended up taking thousands of rolls of film that he never developed. Something about the sun and the endless streets stretching to nowhere deranged him. I'm not saying I know exactly how he felt-- but if your whole visual system grows up in one place, it's not so easy to take pictures when you're someplace new.

Looking West from DUMBO

jake — 2009-08-18T16:42:04-05:00

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A few weeks back we spent the weekend at Josh's house in Quogue, and drove back Sunday night. Along the way, he found out his offer on a new apartment in DUMBO was accepted, so we decided to go upstairs and check it out. I've been on a lot of good rooftops around the city, but I think without question, this is the most insane view I've ever seen from anybody's apartment— you can see both bridges, the whole downtown skyline, the Statue of Liberty, Staten Island, and a huge swath of Brooklyn from Brooklyn Heights all the way to East Williamsburg on the other side.

Looking West From Church

jake — 2009-08-04T11:26:08-05:00

One day last month I went to a panel at New York Law School about changing the press pass rules-- while I was waiting for it to start, I took this picture in a stairwell. The main thrust of the changes will allow anyone who does reporting in a real capacity (whether through a blog, podcast, or mainstream news site) to apply and receive the official NYPD-sanctioned press pass. That should make it easier for sites like Gothamist to do their jobs, and for photographers like me to get into more newsworthy situations.

Roxy Paine on the Roof of the Metropolitan Museum

jake — 2009-07-28T11:12:05-05:00

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The other week we snuck up on to the roof of the Metropolitan Museum just before a thunderstorm to check out the Roxy Paine installation. It's a beautiful exhibit-- energetic, organic, reflective. And highly conductive-- a part of the structure is grounded in one of the rooftop standpipes to prevent anyone from getting electrocuted. It's open through October 25th.