The USofA, part 1

So, lets start in Boston, where I started my trip. And where the reason of my trip was: my sister. She was doing research there for 8 months. And will get back this afternoon, she’s on the plane right now. Anywho, I visited her in Boston. I stayed there for a couple of days – spending the days mostly on my own cause she had to work. Then we headed to New York City together for a couple of days. Then to Philadelphia, where she stayed one day and I a couple of more before I headed back to Boston.

Tri-x in D76, with the XD-7 and the 50/1.7, scans from negative – here we go:

I was totally fascinated by the steam coming from the sewers onto the streets. Something you don’t see here in the Netherlands, only in movies.

I shot some street. You know, not what I usually do. The usual thing for me is to shoot my friends. But I was on my own (not alone, mind you, I had a fantastic time), so I tried to see other motives to shoot. Was an interesting experience – in general but also photographywise. Less talking, more photos is what you’re thinking now, hm? ;)

I kinda really like this frame. Posh lady.

“General Hooker Entrance” :O

I hung out in the park.

Just like him. The weather was fantastic. Couldn’t have been better.

Just to have something to do while wandering the streets I made it my “mission” to shoot portraits of the people who came up to me to ask me something (a cig, a light, the directions, etc).

He was such a nice guy. Really sweet. Unlike the light which was totally blocking my sight.

After I shot the previous portrait I noticed two guys in a wheelchair sitting acros the street, enjoying the sun. So I decided to ask them for a portrait. With the excuse of “shooting a streetassignment for photographyschool”, which – let’s have that clear- I’m not in. I study Comparative Arts/Cultural Studies. Theoretical stuff, not the practice of arts itself.
So when I asked this dude was like “Huh? What?”. And the other dude literally said: “A photo?! I’m getting te fuck out of here!”. While he rolled away.

The other day I took the metro to the other side of town. And walked down the river Charles. Why is everyhting called Charles in Boston, I wonder.

There was this great photographystore there. The kind that has it all. I was helped by a really nice guy (but honestly, everyone in the States has been so incredibly kind to me, it was startling). He gave me his card, I gave him my blogaddress. Derek, if you read this: hi!

So finally I had my beloved Neopan1600 again!! And cheesecake. Mmmm…

Back in the metro into the city again. I wanted to shoot the view and thought it would be nicely framed by these guys. But when I raised my camera they both kinda twitched and obviously did their best to ignore the girl with the camera. Which I though was kinda funny. So I refocused, corrected the settings and shot them. Just like they thought I would.

Ok, moving on to NYC. With Superia800 loaded! How I adore that film…

Sometimes colour just fits.

Zombies. They honestly freaked me out. It was fun though, to get the whole Halloween experience thing.

They jumped onto the traffice shouting “Brains. BRAAAAIIINNNSSS.”

Ground Zero. I was surprised to see the amount of tourists standing in front of it, smiling and making the peace sign for the photo.

Some didn’t really smile though.

Having some food. And my sister Madelijn managing to squeeze out a photosmile while eating. I bet she’s gonna love me for including this shot.

Ok, I’m so lost on the chronology right now, with taking out and putting back in the film. This didn’t take all place in one day, but in the course of several. But that might be obvious, I dunno.

On our way to Times Square I saw this guy, and I was amused by his outfit. Complete with Crocs. So I shot him.

He saw me and posed. Then he came up to talk to me and see the photo. Slightly dissapointed to see I still shoot film. He gave me a fistbump though when I told him I was from the Netherlands. And almost forced us to let my sister take a photo of him and his “new friend from Holland”.

Times Square was so fantastic to shoot. I enjoyed myself immensly there.

We walked to the M&M store.

Which is an insanely huge and useless store. What an immense crap they sell there. Unbelievable.

Lady with creepy fingernails.

Ha, it was quite funny to shoot in that store. Whenever I saw an interesting frame including people and raised my camera, the people sometimes saw me and apologized for blocking my frame and moved out of the way.

“Hmmm, which colour shall we get?” Who cares? They all taste the same anyway.

We took the ferry to Staten Island:

For some people this is a daily trip, not a tourist trip. So why not catch up on your sleep?

The last frames of colour shot in the MoMA:

Contemplative.

And highly interested apparantly.

That’s it for now. I wanted to show everything from NYC in this post, but I showed about 50 frames already and still have approximately 50 b/w frames to go. I don’t want to numb you ;) Besides that, I’m off to collect my sister at the airport!
Next post in a week or so.

Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoyed!