39th St. & 10th Ave., 3/31/07 (Saturday) at 6:32 pm
The first car of the train appears around the edge of the concrete factory without warning. To capture that moment is exceedingly difficult. It took three tries, each marked by a long, uncomfortable wait sitting atop a rickety fence, looking through the viewfinder for at least ten minutes straight. The concentration was stifling—maybe a taste, as I thought at the time, of what a sniper might endure. I suffered for this picture, but of course it was worth it.
I discovered this tableau last September and it was one of the many images I encountered on my rambles that inspired me to get a camera. For six months I had a clear idea of this picture, and I finally returned, camera in hand. Above all I was focused on the industrial majesty of the scene, and my reflexes were primed to record something iconic. So if my literal focus and reflexes initially failed me, I believe my sense of the bigger picture is what saved the moment.
"Encominum to an Urban Wiseguy"
ReplyDeleteNothing is lost on Herr Eisenstat. Not scandal, not pathos, bathos, or the sins of St.
Paul. Politicians, crack-hos, street walkers, panhandlers,lies, cops, creeps, scandal, and
corruption cannot get his number. Eisenstat is "unique" in this world. He might as well be "The Arbiter" of Imperial Rome so un-juandiced is his eye as he bestrides the
gurgling cesspool of Brooklyn's urban decay and Manichean splendour liked a wounded Colossus armour-plated with the strength of truth, and ready to repel any bullshit that the degraded mechanical, capitalist, physical "Ur-American," economic, and image-obsessed meta system can dish out.