Stack of Books at the Bloomingdale Library
Monkey Bars in Central Park
Author: Rafaela Alba
J. Graham rests his eyes while waiting for the train at 96 st.
Neighborhood cat, Oreo, being cool.
The first photo has a young man sitting on a bench in a train station in Manhattan. He has a shopping bag in between his feet and is leaning his head back against the wall. The colors aren’t particularly bright; mostly browns and the dirty white color of subway walls. The man is the main subject of the photo. He’s dead center and has a sign directly above his head pointing right, towards the direction of 97 st. If the photo had been taken better it’d be almost symmetrical across the subject.
The second photo is fat cat named Oreo. The photo is taken from a low angle on the sidewalk in front of a building stoop. Oreo is staring off towards the right. Because of Oreo’s smaller size, the picture was taken with the camera almost on the ground. The intention being that the viewer doesn’t look down at Oreo like if he were a real cat on the street. The low angle kinda gives the photo that little bit of gravitas that Oreo naturally projects.
Something I find interesting about the two photographs is that they offer two kinds of perspectives. The first photograph was taken from further away, while the second was taken while really close to the subject. One is more geometric than the other, with the tiles on the wall and wooden rectangular bench. They both are at their very core documentary photographs of two New Yorkers . One a young man just trying to get home and the other a fat cat posing for scratches.
Sidewalk after some snow on the corner of Central Park West and 100 st
This photo was taken with an iPhone 6. I chose it because I like pictures that are taken outside. The natural light is really the only good thing about this photo. It makes everything feel sharper, especially since I’m not using a professional camera. On the left is a new deli that sells organic chips and $7 smoothies.
