I found a perfect view of the Woolworth Building
from in front of the US Post Office, in the entrance niche, to be accurate. I had
placed myself and the tripod-mounted camera on the side of the entrance niche, away
from the traffic going in and out through the revolving door in the middle, or so I
thought. Just as I had set the camera properly, a guy came from within the building
and put a cord obstruction with a plaque "use side doors" in front of the revolving
door! I must have seemed like a total idiot crouching there in the way of people
coming in and out, but the 'line of sight' was simply best from where I was, so I
just had to squeeze myself next to a dustbin and try to take the picture as fast as I
could.
While 'bagging' the Western Union Building, I went
into the lobby to take a photo of it because I felt that the building is externally so
much like the nearby AT&T Building that it would be of no use to photograph also
the W.U. in its entirety. Just as I had taken my spot meter out of bag, a 'bouncer'
came to me and said that photography in the lobby was forbidden! I didn't know that
W.U. was that sensitive of its property. Maybe some of its business partners
passing the lobby coudn't face the light of day... Well, joking apart, I went outside
and photographed the entrance instead.
The photographing of 1 Wall Street involved perhaps more
interaction with the 'natives' than during the photographing of any other single
building on that trip. As I was taking exposures and setting everything, a group of
youngsters passed by and the girls in that group wanted me to take a photo of them. "Sure", I joked, but as they thought that I was serious, I unfortunately had to let
them down as I had my 'Effie' set on tripod and trained on 1 Wall, and I wasn't too
excited about interrupting the delicate settings. Those young girls were very
delicate too ;^) and I had to soothe their disappointment by saying quite truthfully
that "of course I'd love to take their photo, but etc..." Anyway, I used slide
film, and it might have been more than difficult to get them the copies they wanted.
A bit later two dudes came by, and as I told them that I was photographing 'scrapers
for the 'Net, they recommended me some subjects and I even (grinningly) had to admit
that I was a -- tourist... In both these instances when asked about what I was
photographing, I babbled the slogan I came up with: "those two, the cathedrals of
capitalism and religion." Well, don't know was it the 'distractions' or what, but I
actually forgot to move the skyscraper wall to a higher zone, ie. in practice, open
the aperture one stop from the measured spot reading, and thus the wall of 1 Wall
(yes, another pun) came out a bit dark.
Huge luck got involved when photographing the
Chase Manhattan Bank Plaza. As I arrived at the bank it was late afternoon and
brokers and clerks were hurrying homebound. I took some time to find a good spot to
get on film both artworks in the plaza and a part of the bank building itself. I
hesitated many times before I was actually happy with the sharpness in viewfinder and the camera settings and took the picture. Just as I was putting the camera to bag --
it must have been only about ten seconds after actually pressing the shutter release
-- that the fountain in the pool was shut down! Well, not that the outcome as scanned
would have been that much different, the fountain jets aren't very visible in the
image, but it was a strange coincidence that I'd actually, unbeknownst, take the
picture at the last moment. And the fountain is an integral part of the
water-sculpture artwork, after all...
Little did I apparently know about the vaguely informed "restricted area policy" around
the Downtown Civic Center when photographing the Javits Federal
Office Building... I walked off the street just like anywhere to a most suitably
placed square next to U.S. Courthouse, from where to bag
the Javits ("My, it's much wider and lower than I thought..."), unaware of anything
being wrong. I though wondered that the square was surprisingly sparsely crowded.
In fact, apart from two older people sitting in a bench nearby and talking something
important in a low voice, there was hardly anyone there. I took the picture and walked
back towards street. In the corner of the Courthouse a policeman stopped me and
started to scold me from entering a forbidden area, restricted for Civic Center
personnel only! He showed me a plaque on the Courthouse wall about the restriction
and said that I should have noticed it and keep out of the Courthouse property. I, as
an ardent debatist, of course started a counter-argument that the plaque should be in
a more visible place, for example on a pole etc.... But as I said that I've done what
I came to do there, and I'm done now, the quarrel died away, and I continued towards
City Hall Park... (In the full-frame slide one can see the policeman eyeing
suspiciously from the corner, but I've cropped him from the scanned image.)
(5 Jan 1999: he's back in frame, and in fact, walking towards me at the corner)
The atrium shot of the Marriott Marquis Hotel was the only
indoors picture I took for the skyscrapers web site -- it not only told vastly more
about the building than an exterior shot would have done, but the dim Blade
Runner interior was also such a sight that it simply made a fine picture in
itself. I went up to the hotel's eighth floor lobby for the first time during one of
my Times Square evening strolls, confident that with my suit'n'tie clothing no-one
would turn me away from that laudably expensive (for hotel guests, that is)
environment. I slightly hesitated to go back there during the day, though, in my
less-than-chic 'work' clothing and photo gear, to photograph the interior. Anyway, I
took there with the Owner-of-the-City attitude, walking around the lobby level, well
aware that my shabby clothing wasn't exactly something expected of a Marquis guest.
Finally I found a good spot from the cafe and cautiously metered the exposure with
spot meter and took a couple of pictures of the 'space' atrium, not sure whether
photography even would be frowned upon by the personnel. But the slides did turn out
well...
One issue before the trip was how to photograph some architectural icons that have
through the decades been photographed from virtually the same angles in all
reproductions. Not least of such icons are the Flatiron
Building and the RCA/GE Building, which have been almost
always photographed from the most familiar angles -- the pointed apex of the Flatiron
and the jagged Plaza side of the RCA/GE, that is. So, even before the trip I had
decided upon the points-of-view from which to shoot these buildings, and which would
show a hitherto less known side of these respective buildings. There was no particular
sense in photographing the Flatiron from the apex side as that had already been done
ad nauseam and there already were links to such images on the site -- the same went
for the RCA/GE Plaza side. How many of you do in fact know or remember what the
Flatiron 22nd Street facade looks like, or that the RCA/GE is so totally different
on the Sixth Avenue side? They may not be as dramatic on these portrayed sides,
but nevertheless should help to complete the outward image of the buildings.
As I arrived at the Lescaze House I saw to my horror that
there was a yellow car with a truly messed-up, patched paintjob parked in front of it.
A perfect way to ruin the facade of the coolest building in New York City...
It could have been advisable to come back again later, but the timetable was strict
and I had to manage the best I could. Fortunately, the mismatching paint on the door
of the car wasn't that bad on the scanned image, and I could further lessen the
effect by blurring the car with photo manipulation (2 Jan 1999: blurred no more...).
©