new york state of mind
I've been reading a lot of American novels recently, or America-set novels is probably more accurate. So I've been tuned in to an American sensibility, and partly daydreaming in one (although not even in my worst dreams do I get any understanding of the Trump fiasco).
What all this inspiration has done is, simultaneously, make me long to visit the States again at some future date, and cast my mind back to a New York trip I made in 1989/90. I visited over New Year and so spent the very last few days of the Eighties and the very first few of the Ninties there. I ticked all the tourist boxes; Empire State, World Trade Centre, Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Broadway, the Guggenheim, Christopher Street, Tribeca, I stayed in Brooklyn, I rode the subway, smoked Marlboro, tipped the coat check, watched cockroaches in the appartment, ate Chinese take away (or was it take out?) from white folding top cartons, and I watched the Big Apple come down at the stroke of New Year in a very boisterous Times Square.
Anyway, all this reminiscing sent me scurrying back to my photo albums where I found these snaps (bad scans, I know). I do remember deliberately choosing to use a black and white film to take my photos because it just seemed so damn appropriate. I also remember that when I got the photos back from Boots the chemist (where you had to go to get rolls of film developed back then) I was really chuffed with my pictures of the twin towers. I took them whilst riding back on the ferry from my trip to the Statue of Liberty, it was a cold but bright Winter's afternoon and the towers glowed silver with sunlight above the rest of the City.
Photos are the Author's own.
What all this inspiration has done is, simultaneously, make me long to visit the States again at some future date, and cast my mind back to a New York trip I made in 1989/90. I visited over New Year and so spent the very last few days of the Eighties and the very first few of the Ninties there. I ticked all the tourist boxes; Empire State, World Trade Centre, Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Broadway, the Guggenheim, Christopher Street, Tribeca, I stayed in Brooklyn, I rode the subway, smoked Marlboro, tipped the coat check, watched cockroaches in the appartment, ate Chinese take away (or was it take out?) from white folding top cartons, and I watched the Big Apple come down at the stroke of New Year in a very boisterous Times Square.
Anyway, all this reminiscing sent me scurrying back to my photo albums where I found these snaps (bad scans, I know). I do remember deliberately choosing to use a black and white film to take my photos because it just seemed so damn appropriate. I also remember that when I got the photos back from Boots the chemist (where you had to go to get rolls of film developed back then) I was really chuffed with my pictures of the twin towers. I took them whilst riding back on the ferry from my trip to the Statue of Liberty, it was a cold but bright Winter's afternoon and the towers glowed silver with sunlight above the rest of the City.
Photos are the Author's own.
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