He surprised her with a trip to NYC, he surprised her with a proposal in Central Park, and he surprised her with a photographer waiting to take engagement portraits. ♡

April 23, 2016

On the afternoon of December 3, 2014, I sat waiting in the Blue Room of City Hall, waiting to photograph a number of bill signings by Mayor Bill DeBlasio for the organization Make the Road New York.  Someone from the administration soon informed us that the bill signings would be cancelled, and some of us began to the wonder if something had happened in the grand-jury decision for the police officer in the death of Eric Garner.  Soon reports from the media announced that Mayor DeBlasio was heading to Staten Island to speak about the decision.

Fast forward a few hours, after a number of news sources were describing the protests around the city, I headed to Union Square around 6:30 p.m. Things seemed pretty quiet aside from holiday market shoppers, but then I spotted someone in a “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt, and a few others approached him at the same time to ask where groups were gathering – “Everyone is heading to the tree lighting in Rockefeller Center,” we were told.

I popped back down into the subway and was swept into a crowd of protestors heading to the tree, which I quickly snapped with a cell phone:

I exited the subway with the same group of protestors, heading for Rockefeller Center, and soon small groups of marchers had turned into hundreds – some reports say 1000s.  The following photos were taken from 7:00 pm until about 9:00 p.m. all throughout midtown Manhattan.

Chants heard throughout the streets:
“Hands up, Don’t Shoot”
“Eric Garner, Michael Brown – Shut it Down, Shut it Down”
“Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter”
“Whose Streets? Our Streets”

And finally, as protestors made their way to the West Side Highway to shut it down, police grabbed one marcher and began to handcuff him on the back of a car.  As a camera person went to get footage, the police pushed him down on the car, as well.

The End for this night of protests.

Shut it down.

For the past few years, I’ve spent a few days each spring photographing the staff and volunteers at Friends of the High Line during their month-long Spring Cutback.  This is the time when the winter grasses and seed heads are trimmed back plant-by-plant to make way for new spring growth.  You can visit the High Line blog’s Spring Cutback updates to see many fun photos and read more information, but it’s always incredible to see how much work can be done each day on small sections of the High Line.  So this year, I decided to try a new way of showing one day’s work - – -

On Friday March 15, 2013, friends and neighbors helped plan one last Block Party at 4 Downing Street and an after-party to raise funds to help artist Arthur Wood, 81, find a new home.  He is being foreclosed on after almost 30 years in his home and his work of art, the Broken Angel, a Brooklyn landmark.  The community came out to show their support and celebrate art.

See more about Arthur’s story in this New York Times article: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/13/after-art-house-eviction-time-for-a-block-party-in-clinton-hill/?smid=tw-share

On Monday night, I was excited to have one of my photographs from the Chasing Sanitation project featured among other artists’ work in Times Square as part of Artists Wanted’s Art Takes Times Square Billboard Premier.  This public event hosted by Questlove from the Roots screened thousands of artists’ work on large electronic screens in the heart of Times Square throughout the night, featured marching bands on stilts, and the final prize was awarded to a substitute teacher from Allentown, PA, Vicki DaSilva, whose luminescent graffiti art will displayed on billboards throughout Times Square for the next 2 weeks.

A little more about Chasing Sanitation:  writer/producer Lisa Dowda and I spent over 2 years chasing sanitation street crews all over New York with our cameras, questions and pens.  In February 2011, through the incredible support of donors through a kickstarter campaign, of over 70 photographs and 15 narratives were on view at a pop-up gallery exhibition in NoHo and was highlighted in this New York Times article as well as the NY Daily News, Channel NY1, and NBC’s NY Non-stop.

This project has been deeply rewarding in so many ways – and seeing two of NY’s sanitation workers on the job displayed on electronic billboards in Times Square was just that.  Their work keeping these busy streets clean so often goes unnoticed, and taking a closer look at the work they do and who they are is big part of what this project was all about.  Thanks, Lisa, for always being such a champion of this project and getting it out there!

This week Wed-Sat, I am photographing for the High Line – 4 days of performances as a part of their Step to the High Line series.

These are a few pre-shoot Instagram photos of one of the teams warming up for their step performance.  More pics from Wednesday evening’s live performance with Organized Chaos (Brooklyn, NY) vs. Molloy Boys (Queens, NY) will be posted on the High Line blog.

Come on out tonight and tomorrow night at 6:30pm, or LEARN some step basics with Stomp the Yard star Seye Charles at the workshop on Saturday at 3:00pm – followed by a showcase performance at 4:00pm!