Photographing Rose Fazio, a 100 year old resident of Long Island City

In the fall of 2008, Diane Hendry, who ran a gallery called Art-O-Mat, in Long Island City, New York, asked me and another photographer, Alexander Richter, if we would photograph some of the residents of Long Island City for a show that would be on view from February to April in 2009. Diane was a long time resident of the area and she knew most of the people very well. She loved many of these people, and, as I began photographing them, I fell in love with them too.

This area of New York City is an amazing mix of teachers, artists, musicians, blue-collar workers, community activists and many others who spend a surprising amount of time with each other doing all kind of interesting things. Many of them live in humble but very interesting homes, some of them having lived there all their lives. Rose Fazio was one of these people. She lives in the house she was born into, one hundred years ago. I decided to photograph her in St. Mary’s church, a couple of blocks away from her home. I later found out that although her two daughters regularly attend St. Mary’s, Rose is less enthusiastic about church going. Nevertheless, she agreed to go with me there. When I picked her up, she was all dressed up for the occasion with her rhinestone earrings, her lipstick and her perfectly coiffed hair. We spent about an hour and a half in the church, walking around, finding the best places with the most flattering light, etc. She was very relaxed, and yet she had intensity in her clear blue eyes that I thought was amazing. She didn’t tire until the very end of the session and later on, when I showed her the photographs that I made of her, she seemed very pleased.

Prospect Park Peaks

Last Saturday I marched along with the Brooklyn Little Leaguers as they inaugurated the opening on the 2010 baseball season. Afterward, as I walked around Prospect Park, I thought, Today, right at this moment, it is peak season in the park. After this, we can look forward to the three h’s….hazy, hot and humid. But let’s not get carried away. Right now it is heavenly. All the fruit trees are in bloom, as are the magnolias, dogwoods, elms, redbuds, locusts, yellowwoods, sycamores, forsythia, and daffodils. I’m a tree hugger, I admit it, but tell, me, how can one not be in love with these magnificent specimens, and they’re right here, in our beautiful backyard. Thank you Tupper! We will miss you, but we’ll always have the promise of spring in Prospect Park.

Photoshoot: Up On The Roof

Recently I photographed Isabel Hill, an architectural historian, urban planner, and filmmaker. She needed some new photos for her website. Normally, my assistant, Alex Kotlick, will accompany me on a shoot like this, to help me carry my gear and, primarily, to help me with lighting. In this case, we were going to shoot outdoors and all that was needed was someone to hold the reflector. Unfortunately, Alex, who is a great assistant and a terrific photographer in his own right, couldn’t make it, and so I’d have to deal with the reflector myself. After making some photos in Isabel’s backyard with her adorable pup, we decided to head on up to her roof. Isabel wanted some urban architecture to show in the background. We went up on the roof and amazingly, there was a beautiful built-in reflector right there, a silverish painted surface on the roof that reflected the overcast sky perfectly. Sometimes the photo gods are good.