Once Colorful City Fades to Gray

I have been working on these photos for a while but the subject feels oddly appropriate right now.

Over the years, I have noticed more and more buildings turning gray. Brownstones are resurfaced without the brown.

Gray painted brick looms over Miss Lily's Sunny Jamaican Diner.

While many Georgian townhouses are gray or black, they are usually next to other, lighter colored townhouses. Most new buildings are, of course, gray.

Sometimes it feels as if whole blocks are losing their color.

Two years ago, I posted this building in Williamsburg that was being gut renovated. There was nothing left but its cheery facade.

The graffiti creatures along the buildings base looked as if they were imprisoned in the construction shed.

A tumor building was constructed around it and it has been adorned with the most hectic graffiti.

Here is a closer look.

I am not sure what the misshapen lump in is, I think I see a footprint in there. I do not like this graffiti at all and not just because it was also temporarily adorning a Douglas Elliman office. There are so many better examples of graffiti murals. Once there were murals all around New York City. They are slowly disappearing as the gray buildings become more common. In Bushwick there ares still lots of beautiful walls.

This one is so nice we have to look at it twice

I love the image of this young woman. She is my inspiration.

Following with Chanel's descent into lipstick revolution is all the more depressing.

Let's clear our palette with a cat eating a bat.

I also love these odd chaotic spots of tags.

Near White St. and Moore, the warehouses are all painted with tags and art. It gets panted over with new work every few months.

La Borinquena

The Williamsburg Bridge is always getting tagged, with the dedication plaque as a favorite spot.

The city tried to clean the plaque, but it did not last. This was the first tag, the plaque is covered once again, but it isn't as nice as the Stay Human art above.

Taking Pictures With One Arm In A Sling

I was hit by an opening car door while I was riding my bicycle and I injured my shoulder. For a few weeks, I had to wear a sling when I went out. It limited what I could carry.

I could not even carry my little point and shoot camera. The only pictures I have taken with it were on this one afternoon when the light was pretty in the garden.

Instead I used my camera phone as I wandered around the city, staring forlornly at the cyclists reveling in the mellow autumn weather.

All of my pictures were a little tilted, thank heavens for Photoshop.

When I was photographing this post Halloween confetti of party fliers, a car drove up on the sidewalk just to my right. It made me feel as if the city was trying to kill me. Indeed, 13 pedestrians have been killed by cars since Halloween. According to the Gothamist, 4 of them were on the sidewalk when they were struck.

This is what Bike Snob NYC calls a hipster high lock.

I have been out of the sling for two weeks. This is actually from a week ago. I was about to post it when I heard about the attacks in Paris. The blog post didn't feel important so I left it a few days. Violence continues, even today, in Mali. I could wait forever.

Fog

It has been cloudy and rainy for days. Yesterday the clouds dropped down and created a fog. I was reluctant to go out, but I pushed myself because the light was mysterious.

I visited the graffiti walls. There are new pieces with vibrant colors.

I had wanted to photograph the Callery pears that I caught blossoming last spring. But there was not enough distance to see the fog.

However, there was this cool beam of light under the BQE.

In this tiny park near the East River, the fog surrounded me, muffling out the sounds. It was soft and peaceful.

Colors

It was raining when I woke up but by noon the sun was burning through the clouds. It was a little hazy from the fog and the colors were popping. I saw this building from the subway the other day. It is frustrating to see something that I want to photograph and be unable to do anything about it. Sometimes the image never reappears because the light changes. When I saw the sun breaking through, I rushed out.

I love the way people post their building numbers.

I crossed the Williamsburg Bridge on the pedestrian side. It is steeper than the bikeway.

 One is rewarded by a very pretty rainbow at the top.

The guardrails were originally a more serious red color. The sun has bleached them to a girlie pink. It reminds me of winter.