Tag Archives: NYC

walking the line…

in DUMBO, Brooklyn, NYC

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ruth gruber

Ruth Gruber

Ruth Gruber

“My only regret is not doing enough.”  That answer not only floored me, but totally inspired me.  The question was proposed by a young woman in the audience.  “Mrs. Gruber, If you’d look back over your life…do you have any regrets?”  I can’t get that response out of my head, nor do I want to.

Here’s a woman that’s 101 years old that experienced and accomplished more by the time she was in her mid-twenties than so many of us in an entire lifetime.  She became the youngest PhD in the world (accomplished in one year) before going on to become an international foreign correspondent at the age of 24.  And she was just getting started!

A famed journalist, photographer, author of 19 books, humanitarian and a former U.S. government official, she was born in Brooklyn with the love of adventure.  Add that to fearlessness and powerful intellect!   In her thirties she escorted Holocaust refugees to America, covered the Nuremberg trials, and documented the ship Exodus while making an attempt to deliver 4,500 Jewish refugees first to Cyprus, then to Britain and then to France before heading back to Germany.  While aboard the prison ship, she photographed the refugees confined in wire cages.  (Which by the way is currently being exhibited at Soho Photo here in NYC this month!)

I was fortunate to attend the screening of the documentary “Ahead of Time” of Gruber’s life from 1911 to 1947.  Held at the Shearith Israel, home to the first Jewish congregation in the United States, now 350 years old. (Just an added bonus!)  She answered questions for thirty minutes or so before her book signing, “Witness,” an account of what she witnessed up close and personal on her assignments.

Asked if she was working on any new projects and Gruber was quick to answer, “Yes, just yesterday I met with someone who wants to work on a project in Haiti….”  (Really??? At 101??) When asked the best piece of advice she ever received?  “Take photographs with your heart…”

It’s been a few days since the screening, but I just can’t forget those words…“My only regret is not doing enough.”  Oh, how we all can do so much more.  So much more…

 

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may day – a day of protests in nyc

A photographer’s dream being in the thick of today’s protests in Union Square.  Here are some of my favorites!

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

May Day Protests

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beginnings ~1/52~

Dias y Flores Community Garden, NYC

Dias y Flores Community Garden, NYC

Always up for a challenge, I’m joining in on Bella Cirovic’s 52 photo projects.  For 52 weeks, she provides a photo prompt and we display our work and meet others with the same shared passion.  So this week is week 1 of 52!  And here we go!

Her first prompt of the “new year” is about beginnings…What are you beginning right now?, she asked.  I’ve been thinking a lot lately about printing my photographs.  I love creating and sharing (posting to my blog) but I find that most of my work is hoarded and buried deep into my hard-drive.   I recently read an article and kept a portion of it as a reminder.  Unfortunately the author’s name escaped me, but what was said really opened my eyes to the importance of printing. “We need to print it, look at it, live with it, and react to it. And we need to share it. The downfall of the digital revolution is that so much of our work never makes it past the pixels.”

So with that reminder and Bella’s prompt this week, I WILL PRINT!  I’m looking forward to sharing the other 51 prompts with you as well, so I hope you’ll follow along!  Have you started doing something new lately?  Would love to hear about it!

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a week on the farm

My week on the farm has come to a close…quality time with my parents is always special!

My dad and I took several walks on the farm…looking at his apple trees he can no longer take care of due to his Alzheimer’s…but still able to admire the beauty of a newborn apple…

new apples on Wertz Farm

Wertz Farm apple orchard

We stopped in to visit at a neighbor’s farm…

Farm neighbor

And of course a visit to the nearby Happy Hollow Gardens Park was in order to see all the azaleas in bloom…

And the big thrill of the week was seeing a wild turkey puff up and spread his tail feathers which I’ve never seen in the wild…(albeit not the best photo, but the best I could capture!)  My dad and I both were very excited over this sighting!

Wild Turkey in Virginia

Love you mom and dad!  Will miss you terribly! Tomorrow it’s back to MY city, NYC!

 

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community

For those not as familiar with the neighborhoods of Manhattan, in the lower east part of the island is an area called the East Village.  To me, and many others, it’s the real New York.  Within the East Village is a smaller neighborhood called Alphabet City. (Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names.) It’s an area that I’ve chosen to get to know at a more intimate level by spending hours walking and discovering the many treasures it has to offer.  A little funk, a little grunge, sometimes gritty, but real neighborhoods with diversity galore…and a plethora of beautiful small community gardens, many the oldest in New York City.

It wasn’t until the purchase of Grace Tankersely’s guide book on the Community Gardens of the East Village and my own conversations with garden members did I begin to understand the history and the meaning of these gardens.

Looking back, during the 70′s when NYC was on the verge of bankruptcy, there were budget cuts (police, sanitation, fire departments) and building owners abandoned their properties left and right.  By default, these areas became city owned and because of their own financial issues they were unable to care for them.  Eventually torn down, these areas attracted the homeless, drug addicts, rats, along with increased violence.  But what it also brought was a sense of community with neighbors coming together to clean up these abandoned areas.  A neighborhood group, the Green Guerrillas, created their own garden and began helping others who wanted to do the same.

With community gardens on the rise, gardeners worked with the city and in the late 70′s an organization was formed called Operation GreenThumb.  One year leases were then drawn up for the gardens on city-owned land.  Over the years the gardens brought a sense of community; a place for neighbors to meet, for children to play, for weddings, birthday parties and celebrations.

But then came the 1990′s, real estate boomed and gardens were sold.  Neighborhoods exploded with public meetings, movements, lawsuits, and according to Tankersely’s book, even chaining themselves to bulldozers to preserve their gardens.  In 1999, 114 community gardens all over New York City were put on the auction block.  Imagine the intensity when at the very last minute the gardens were purchased by two groups, the Trust for Public Land and Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project. A few years later an agreement was reached resulting in the Department of Parks and Recreation taking ownership as long as the gardens remained active.

Of course there’s way more to this story and Tankersely does an excellent job providing the details in her book. But the bottom line to keep a garden active requires time, energy and money…all from volunteers. If you’ve been part of a volunteer group you know that brings its own set of problems.  People come and go, often leaving a few to do all the work.  There’s varying opinions, cultural differences, struggles to raise funds to keep the gardens going…and time needed, lots and lots of time.  (If you’ve ever had a backyard or a vegetable garden you know.)  I don’t have a full understanding of the leases that are held with these gardens, but I’m sure as I explore and chat with gardeners during the summer months, I’ll walk away with increased knowledge of how these treasures will (hopefully) continue to bring that sense of community for generations to come.

In future posts, I’m excited to share with you my photography and my discussions with the interesting and ever so eclectic group of garden members in this little community of Alphabet City.

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candyland

Tulips at Annual Tulip Festival Upper West Side NYC

Take a big deep breath and think about the aroma from lots of tulips.  Perhaps you’re thinking…but tulips don’t really have much of a fragrance!  True, but…did I happen to mention 15,000 tulips?  Yes, it’s that time of year again for the annual tulip festival at the West Side Community Garden.  Beautiful, warm, overcast day…picture perfect for photography and that aroma! Pure heaven!

Tulips at Annual Tulip Festival Upper West Side NYC

Tulips at Annual Tulip Festival Upper West Side NYC

Tomorrow I head for the farm and by the time I return all of these lovelies will be gone, but quickly followed by irises, bleeding hearts and more peonies.  It’s one huge candyland with a never ending supply of beauty all summer long!

Peonies at the UWS Community Garden NYC

This week be looking for a couple of updates…one, my discoveries of some very unique community gardens in the East Village AND two, my adventure to Philly to photograph in the Eastern State Penitentiary!  Plus I’m starting a new course this week about becoming best friends…with…guess who?  MYSELF!  Combined with photography, we’ll be honoring our memories, seeing our own beauty, thinking about our hidden dreams, and seeing where we are in the world.  Susannah Conway promises eight weeks of unravelling (and who doesn’t need a bit of unravelling once in a while?) and it would be my pleasure if you’d follow along with me!

 

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de colores

De Colores

de colores, east village, nyc

In Spanish, de colores simply means “the colors.”  It’s also the name of a song that praises the beauty of the diversity and simplicity of God’s creation.  How perfect!  More to come on these little treasures in the East Village!  There’s so much there…not only the plantings, but the art and oh…the people of this community!

 

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community gardens in the east village, nyc

De Colores Community Yard and Cultural Center

de colores community yard and cultural center

I need 72 hours in a day to do all I want to do.

Stay tuned for more on this topic!

 

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wabi-sabi saturday

This is an ongoing series on Saturdays showcasing my wabi-sabi find of the week. 

What is wabi-sabi? 

Learn about it here and here.

 wabi-sabi

Window of Kruser-Finley House

Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island, NYC

Built in 1790

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