Thursday

Concrete Moment





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.

1 comment:

  1. "Encominum to an Urban Wiseguy"

    Nothing 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.

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