broadway/19th street
i've been walking to work every morning, with few exceptions, for the last couple of months. sun, rain, "wintery mix" --the weather rarely hinders me.
i like how a city--any place, really--looks, feels, and sounds in the morning.
a photographer (i can't remember which one) had recently talked about looking at your city with the eye of a tourist. i think about that during my walks. i take photos occasionally--not many remarkable ones, as you see. but i frame a lot of them in my mind as i go. i notice the blocky shadows cast by air-conditioning units that jut out from big dreary apartment buildings on 36th street. i will realize a new view of the flatiron building from madison avenue. see buds and full blossoms on trees that had been fractured during "thundersnow 2011."
every day my route can be a little bit different. sometimes it is decided by "impatience." but i am rarely in a rush these days, so i don't always take the quickest, straightest path. i'll just choose one in the hopes of avoiding potential catastrophe (they are "underground blasting" on madison avenue and 37th. steer clear) or observing some new small thing or an interesting moment.
so i'll watch hard hats at work, surveying the streets or busting up ground or building something brand new. i'll see film and tv productions, which i am almost never in the mood to stop for (but i like walking by the big trucks, trails of thick yellow and orange cable, craft services tables). i notice delivery trucks (coca-cola barreling down 22nd street, two days in a row!) and the delivery people themselves: a familiar one, in a wheelchair, making his way up park avenue--and it is uphill-- in the cold rain.
i'll look for fashion-forward girls, take note of good short haircuts.
i judge everyone by their shoes.
but my favorite sights are the flower delivery people, always below 23rd street. i'm rarely quick enough to catch them, but i'll never forget the first time i really took notice--a tall, burly guy in a dark grey jumpsuit walked past me in the too cold drizzle, with a long glass vase filled with poofy peonies balanced on one arm, flouncing like a giant pink corsage. it made the whole walk worthwhile.
i hope you have good morning sights, too.
here are a few shots from monday...
from madison square park
from madison square park
fifth ave
broadway/union square
