I was going through some old storage boxes and came across my photos from New York in 2001. I did an internship in NY for the summer while I was in school with the great Mary Ellen Mark. I had forgotten about these so you can imagine what a suprise it was to see them and the memories they brought back.
I was there four months before the twin towers were hit and remember so vividly the morning of September 11th. My husband called me and woke me up, he told me something about how one of the twin towers was hit by a plane. I hurridly turned the t.v. on and watched, as I am sure most of us did, at the sheer horror of it all. I went to that area nearly every day. Were the people I knew o.k.? What in the world was happening?
It was a surreal experience to say the least, and to imagine that those majestic towers are no longer there as well as the people who were killed... well you know.
A couple of more comments...
These were only taken six years ago when digital was not part of our vocabulary... we were dreaming for the Mamiya 645 or the coveted Hasselblad. You HAD to nail your exposure everytime and to do that, you most likely had a hand held meter, ever heard of one? hee hee. You could not rely on chimping for you had nothing to chimp at. Oh the anticipation of getting your film back... Will the pics be in focus? Is the exposure correct? How did I compose the shots? All these questions swirled in your head when you finished a shoot. I cannot tell you how many times I would get sick to my stomach after I shot something I got paid for, just wondering if they turned out or not... and on a rare occasion (mind you I was just starting out) they did not turn out... blank negatives.
It was a tough road back then, learning the art of photography, but so thrilling, gratifying, and exciting at the same time. I NEVER thought I would EVER shoot DIGITAL, I even wrote my senior paper on how digital photography was killing the industry and the standard of photography and I still kind of believe that. But I also believe that I can adapt to the new, modern way of taking photographs and what my clients prefer and I've been satisfied so far, but not IN LOVE with digital like I was film. I will never give up my Mamiya. No, never. Also, the photographers I admire the very most are still shooting film... check out Jonathan Canlas and Jose Villa.
I was there four months before the twin towers were hit and remember so vividly the morning of September 11th. My husband called me and woke me up, he told me something about how one of the twin towers was hit by a plane. I hurridly turned the t.v. on and watched, as I am sure most of us did, at the sheer horror of it all. I went to that area nearly every day. Were the people I knew o.k.? What in the world was happening?
It was a surreal experience to say the least, and to imagine that those majestic towers are no longer there as well as the people who were killed... well you know.
A couple of more comments...
These were only taken six years ago when digital was not part of our vocabulary... we were dreaming for the Mamiya 645 or the coveted Hasselblad. You HAD to nail your exposure everytime and to do that, you most likely had a hand held meter, ever heard of one? hee hee. You could not rely on chimping for you had nothing to chimp at. Oh the anticipation of getting your film back... Will the pics be in focus? Is the exposure correct? How did I compose the shots? All these questions swirled in your head when you finished a shoot. I cannot tell you how many times I would get sick to my stomach after I shot something I got paid for, just wondering if they turned out or not... and on a rare occasion (mind you I was just starting out) they did not turn out... blank negatives.
It was a tough road back then, learning the art of photography, but so thrilling, gratifying, and exciting at the same time. I NEVER thought I would EVER shoot DIGITAL, I even wrote my senior paper on how digital photography was killing the industry and the standard of photography and I still kind of believe that. But I also believe that I can adapt to the new, modern way of taking photographs and what my clients prefer and I've been satisfied so far, but not IN LOVE with digital like I was film. I will never give up my Mamiya. No, never. Also, the photographers I admire the very most are still shooting film... check out Jonathan Canlas and Jose Villa.
