I chose this subject in particular because it pinpoints two completely different time periods of New York and brings them together into one frame. From the image that I captured, I was able to see where we were as a city (before my time), and how much things have changed as well as how far we have come. Over the course of the years the city has changed drastically, but the streets  still hold the history of what came before. Colson Whitehead supports my concept in what he says in his passage. He states, ” Our streets are like calenders containing who we were and who will be next”. In this case, the “we” depicted in this quote represents the path or destiny of the city. In this passage, Whitehead conveys the message that the streets of the city record everything that has happened and endures what will result from this as the new New York begins to emerge. My juxtaposition fits the concept that Whitehead wants to bring across. Knowing that the church building in my photo frame is of the old New York, this represents who “we” once were, as Whitehead stated. However, the photo also depicts Remsen street which is a one-point perspective leading to a single vanishing point. And at the end of this vanishing point Is the sky scraper which symbolizes what we know as the presnt day New York.

Whitehead also further explains the concept of the overlap between the two cities. In the last paragraph of his passage he says, ” What follows is my city. Making this a guide book, with handy color-coded maps and miniscule fine print you should read very closely so you won’t be surprised. It contains your neighborhoods. Or doesn’t. We overlap. Or don’t. Maybe you’ve walked these avenues, maybe it’s all Jersey to you. I’m not sure what to say. Except that probably we’re neighbors. That we walk past each other everyday,and never knew it until now”. I found this intriguing because it explains that the different New Yorks are like a ” guide book” and the new New York is the latest city to be built onto what came before. He seems to be undecided at whether these New Yorks overlap or not. But the reality is that these overlaps will always be around as long as New York begins to evolve. Therefore, this quote supports what my juxtaposition represents.

Overall, my juxtaposition depicts the proper overlap between the two New Yorks. As time progresses new overlaps will always be created. Whitehead says that we must not fight the inevitable because nothing is meant to last forever. These eight million New Yorks he mentions will never be the same as the one I know or even the one my neighbor knows. But when we look back at the city we have grown to love, we can always spot a particular aspect  that we can reminisce from our own New York.

I consider my location unique because I found it in the most unexpected place. Some may even say it was a planned mistake. I framed the picture from the intersection of Clinton and Remsen street. I had to physically stand in the road in order to get the shot of my juxtaposition. When someone first looks at the picture, they may not see the juxtaposition immediately which gives me more of a reason to explain. This juxtaposition entails an old church building and a skyscraper in the distance. In my opinion this is one of the best examples that display two different New Yorks. On the right side of the picture, the old New York is displayed as a catholic church building. It has a pointed roof and pin point black fences that circle around the property. From what I saw, the primary material of this building are large, brownish cement bricks. In the present day time, these kind of materials are no longer used in the process of construction. Based on the detail and build of the structure I determined that it was from an old New York. It’s old fashioned design may even hold its own significant story of the past. With this in mind, I was able to see how the present day New York was built around the structure along with how it has fit in as the years past.

In the distance, I spotted the second part of my juxtaposition. This consists of a silver sky scraper that stands out above most of the other buildings. This structure had a sleek glassy design that glistens in the sun. At first sight, I felt a futuristic vibe from the building. In the picture frame it is slightly covered by the trees at the side. However, this is the best angle I could acquire without disrupting traffic. When I observing this juxtaposition, I realized a sense of symbolism. The old church building that is closer to me symbolizes the past. It  represents the old age of the city as we know it. After following the road to its vantage point, one can see the skyscraper right at the end. I believe this could symbolize the path from the “Old New York” up into the ” present New York”.

My location was about a 15 minute walk from city tech. Once you exit from the main building on Jay Street take a left, then I walked along Adam Street and crossed around the food store Shake Shack and walked into Cadman Plaza Park. I eventually ended up at Court street, although I did make a circle and took the longer way there. On Court street is where I saw a juxtaposition of two New Yorks. On one side there was the NY Supreme Court area and if you walk further down there’s several stores which kind of reminds me of walking in Manhattan. I can also see how the area down the block with all of the stores could have been many different New York’s for some people. Those stores must have changed a lot of times.

Sketch of the walk path