HELIOLITH

So I live on the west coast of the united states, and I have for 10+ years; it’s beatiful here, don’t get me wrong but… I miss the City! Call me crazy but somtimes I long for the summertime humidity, the way our house used to shudder under the crashing of thunderclouds, the sharp fall winds whirling leaves of all colors everywhere, the winter snows, and slush and sleet and the interminable gray skies…

It’s been so cold (relatively speaking) here in southern California lately that I actually had to scrape a thin layer frost off my windshield this morning. Usually our weather is absurdly predictable: blue skies and sunshine. After awhile it seems a bit surreal, like someone turned off the weather and piped in their version of “how things should be.” I like the wildness of the world around me to match (in scope if not in time) the emotional cycles within me.

The photo exhibit online at newyorkchanging.com is a beautiful rephotographing of landmark buildings, 60+ years later. Berenice Abbott, the original photographer wrote,

Suppose we took a thousand negatives… combining the elegances, the squalor, the curiosities, the monuments, the sad faces, the triumphant faces, the power, the irony, the strength, the decay, the past, the present, the future of a city — that would be my favorite picture.

Apparently Douglas Levere has spent the better part of six years recreating these shots, which will ultimately be released in a book.

With meticulous attention to detail, he duplicated the composition, techniques, and even used Abbott’s own large format camera. Each shot was taken at the same time of year and same time of day as Abbott’s, even, in one location, waiting for the hands on an outdoor clock to move to the same minute before releasing the shutter.

This was the NY my grandfather knew and lived in, juxtaposed with the one I remember, the modern New York, pre and post September eleventh, 2001. I have lived in different places, and I don’t usually feel very homesick for any particular place. I love the land, and the people in it, but I don’t identify particularly with this country’s borders, and much less so its current politics. I consider myself a citizen of the world, however unrealistic that may appear to some.

Maybe it’s the sensationalized northward erosion of progressive voices, as they are replaced by so-called “red states.” Maybe it’s about raising children so far away from the streets and yards I knew and played on, and so far away from my original family. Either way, the more I stay away from the East Coast, the more I sense some deep sense of roots and comfort that make New York and the Northeast my essential home.

(tip from Jason via Anil)