Look Closer

On one of our last days in Egypt we decided to get out of Cairo and visit Alexandria.  The famous port is Egypt’s second city and had been continuously inhabited since Alexander the Great founded it in 334 BC.  While still a busy Egyptian city, it is a much more pleasant place to visit than Cairo.  It has a distinctly Mediterranean feel and the sea breeze keeps the smog and heat under control.  One of the highlights of our visit was the newly built Bibliotheca Alexandrina which is a contemporary library built on the site of the ancient learning center and housed in a beautiful building designed by Norwegian architecture firm, Snøhetta.

We recently visited Cairo to attend the wedding of our good friends Brett and Vanessa.  I’d heard all about the horrible pollution, the traffic and the crowds - and Cairo did not disappoint.  The pollution is worse that any city in China that I have visited, the drivers are the craziest that I’ve ever encountered and we regularly sat in traffic for an hour at a time.  Despite all of this, Cairo is a wonderful place.  It is an energetic and dynamic city that never ceases to amaze.  The mix of new and old, rich and poor, touristed and untouched, makes it a place that is hard to categorize and even harder to pin down.

New York City always manages to serve up new surprises, but the Willets Point neighborhood of Queens, also known as the “Iron Triangle”, is truly unique.  This small piece of land, squished between Shea Stadium and the Van Wyck Expressway, is home to dozens of chop shops and assorted car parts dealers.  Each shop seems to be manned by workers from a different Latin American country with a couple Hasidic business thrown in.  The businesses of Willets Point have been in a long running battle with the city to improve road conditions and services.  Unfortunately, it looks like a loosing one. The site is scheduled to be demolished and replaced by an upscale shopping and hotel complex to complement the new Citi Field next door.

I know its been a long time since I last updated Look Closer and it hasn’t been because i haven’t been taking pictures. Quite the opposite, I’ve been busy taking a lot of pictures and have not found the time to update as often as I should.
For the past month I’ve been in Beijing photographing the city during the Olympic games. It has been a really amazing experience, being in one of my favorite cities during such an exciting time. Here are a few links to some of what I’ve been working on. More to come soon….

China: Beijing’s Vanishing Hutong (PBS)

Tattoos, Once Taboo, Gain Street Credibility in China (NYTimes)

In a Beijing Park, an Oasis for Mind and Body (NYTimes)

I just got around to developing the one roll of film I put through my Lomo on our three month trip through Central America and Mexico. I’ve forgotten where some of the shots were taken but they still bring back the dry, dusty, lonely feeling that some of the places we visited evoke.

A few images from a long walk down Fifth Avenue from 145th Street to Washington Square Park.

Check out the interesting new web magazine, Bertha Mag, whose current issue features some of my work along with a bunch of other excellent photographers.

We just got back from a relaxing week-long visit with Tara’s family in Portland, Oregon. After a few days spent celebrating Christmas and checking out Ali & Evan’s new cafe, we headed up to Evan’s family cabin in Central Oregon. We cooked food, slept in, played with the dogs and just enjoyed having a little time away from it all.

Happy New Year!

We spent a long weekend in Miami, visiting friends and family and taking in the various art fairs.