New York Magazine (Online)

I just thought I would share this online post from New York Magazine that features one of my 9/11 images. It is the same image that featured in the print version of the magazine a few weeks ago.

The Kelly Slater Show (Part 2)

More from the Kelly Slater Show...

The Kelly Slater Show (Part 1)

Kelly Slater is the 10x surfing world champion. Everywhere he goes, fans mob him and cameras click, but he graciously signs autographs and poses for pictures, sometimes spending a few hours after surfing to be sure all his fans, especially the kids, can have a little piece of him to take home.

I'm sure all the attention can get suffocating at times, and as a result, you don't see Kelly practicing on the competition waves or chilling on the beach watching all the action. Some of the other guys get to do all that and still have some anonymity. Fame has its price as they say.

When Kelly hits the beach, the crowds form and men and women go running to get a closer look. 10x champions are rare in any sport, so to see someone at the top of their game is a real treat. Kelly doesn't disappoint. His warmup is zenlike, as one would assume it would have to be given that he's trying to get his gameface on with a bunch of people standing around him taking pictures and trying to talk to him. He also brings it on the waves like nobody else. He scored the only perfect 10 wave of the competition and broke his board clean in half trying to win the finals (he lost--more on the winner later) on the very last wave with a massive aerial move.

More from the Quiksilver Pro

The Quiksilver Pro was over 2 weeks ago! In those intervening 2 weeks, I've been shooting and retouching non-stop for other projects. I've barely had time to look over what I shot out in Long Beach, but I'm really excited about what I have in the bag. I think I've got at least a hundred really great shots and if that pans out, I might I turn the whole thing into a book! I'll be posting some highlights from the Nikons next week, but until then, here's an early edit event collage and Quiksilver's "Epic Edit" video.

Click to enlarge.

High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky

A brand new High Line book is coming out in a few short weeks! High Line: The Inside Story of New York City's Park in the Sky features first-hand accounts from Friends of the High Line founders Robert Hammond and Joshua David and quite a few of my photographs.

From Amazon:

How two New Yorkers led the transformation of a derelict elevated railway into a grand—and beloved—open space

The High Line, a new park atop an ele-vated rail structure on Manhattan’s West Side, is among the most innovative urban reclamation projects in memory. The story of how it came to be is a remarkable one: two young citizens with no prior experience in planning and development collaborated with their neighbors, elected officials, artists, local business owners, and leaders of burgeoning movements in horticulture and landscape architecture to create a park celebrated worldwide as a model for creatively designed, socially vibrant, ecologically sound public space.

Joshua David and Robert Hammond met in 1999 at a community board meeting to consider the fate of the High Line. Built in the 1930s, it carried freight trains to the West Side when the area was defined by factories and warehouses. But when trains were replaced by truck transport, the High Line became obsolete. By century’s end it was a rusty, forbidding ruin. Plants grew between the tracks, giving it a wild and striking beauty.

David and Hammond loved the ruin and saw in it an opportunity to create a new way to experience their city. Over ten years, they did so. In this candid and inspiring book— lavishly illustrated—they tell how they relied on skill, luck, and good timing: a crucial court ruling, an inspiring design contest, the enthusiasm of Mayor Bloomberg, the concern for urban planning issues following 9/11. Now the High Line—a half-mile expanse of plants, paths, staircases, and framed vistas—runs through a transformed West Side and reminds us that extraordinary things are possible when creative people work together for the common good.

David Byrne's Tight Spot + Social Media

I hit a few gallery openings last week--I was in the neighborhood shooting for a client and had caught glimpses of the installations, so I was curious.

The first two openings were at Pace Gallery. From Pace's website:

David Byrne's Tight Spot - A new outdoor installation by David Byrne combines sculptural and audio components in a large-scale inflated globe wedged between the newly opened second section of the High Line and Pace’s 510 West 25th Street gallery.

Social Media - An exhibition investigating the ways in which contemporary artists approach public platforms of communication and social networks through an aesthetic and conceptual lens and examining the cumulative effects of social media on our daily lives. The show features works by Christopher Baker, David Byrne, Jonathan Harris, Robert Heinecken, Miranda July, and Penelope Umbrico, among others. Social Media is organized by Pace/MacGill Gallery and presented in conjunction with The Pace Gallery and the School of Visual Art’s MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media Department.

For me, while all the work was interesting and thought provoking, I particularly liked David Byrne's Tight Spot. Sure, its just a giant inflatable globe stuffed under the High Line, but that's the genius of it. Yes, there are deeper layers of meaning, but for me it works solely on a visual level as an installation piece and I don't need anything else. How could I not love another great example of how people are taking the High Line and making it part of their world?

More from NYC Fashion Week

OK, this is the last dispatch from Fashion Week. Next week, I'll probably post some more surfing images and some gallery openings...

NYC Fashion Week

I'm shooting a project in Chelsea this week and it just so happens that it's NYC Fashion Week. As a result, I've been running into a lot of queues for shows. Here's some fashion folks. I've got no style, but these people sure do.

More Surfing Polaroids

More surfing Polaroids taken with Impossible PX 600 Silver Shade UV+ Poor Pod...