NYC graffiti

Canal street, lower Manhattan. Taken during the pandemic. The middle building used to have a store called Pearl Paint on the ground level. Canal street is still pretty gritty, despite the metamorphosis of the rest of Manhattan. Taken with a Rolleiflex 3.5e, Kodak Portra 400, July 2020.

Rollei 3.5 series are (I believe) waist level (as opposed to eye level) viewfinders. That being the case you could (I think) walk along occasionally looking (actually glancing) down to check framing occasionally), or possibly not look down at all. Simply walk along looking around as you normally might, and when you see a photo op just sort of point the camera in that direction and see what you get (maybe not even have the view finder open). Granted, you may wind up with a lot of throwaways, but you may also wind up with few good one's too (people, food carts, fruit and vegetable stands, etc.). BTW, Pearl Paint occupied the entire building with stuff on all the floors. Edited December 5, 2020 by MrAndMrsIzzy

Rollei 3.5 series are (I believe) waist level (as opposed to eye level) viewfinders. That being the case you could (I think) walk along occasionally looking (actually glancing) down to check framing occasionally), or possibly not look down at all. Simply walk along looking around as you normally might, and when you see a photo op just sort of point the camera in that direction and see what you get (maybe not even have the view finder open). Granted, you may wind up with a lot of throwaways, but you may also wind up with few good one's too (people, food carts, fruit and vegetable stands, etc.). BTW, Pearl Paint occupied the entire building with stuff on all the floors.

Was not aware re: Pearl Paint. Guess that explains the paint job

I don't really care about your camera. It's an interesting photo because just one building (of the three) has this graffiti. I suggest you crop out the 'ground floor' because this is the most uninteresting part of the photo. This would leave you with the 2 floors which show the real differences. You might want to look at how you could accentuate the graffiti in PP.

I actually find the graffiti somewhat secondary here to the interplay of the graffiti with the colorful geometry of the buildings and windows, as a whole. What feels like a very sharp edge at the top, cutting the tops of the buildings, is a strong element. Also quite noticeable is the chopped off street lamp, whose arc doesn't complete itself. This feels as much like a stage set as it does like an actual street (Maria could come out onto one of the fire escapes any minute to find Tony singing her name) and that would be one direction that might have some possibilities.

I really like the perspective, architecture, colors and theme on this one...

Was not aware re: Pearl Paint. Guess that explains the paint job

 

Pearl Paint was to other visual artist's and crafts people as B&H is to photographers.

I don't really care about your camera. It's an interesting photo because just one building (of the three) has this graffiti. I suggest you crop out the 'ground floor' because this is the most uninteresting part of the photo. This would leave you with the 2 floors which show the real differences. You might want to look at how you could accentuate the graffiti in PP.

There is an ever so slight crop on the right hand side. The Canal St. sign is cut off.

I really like the perspective, architecture, colors and theme on this one...

Thank you @hjoseph7

NYC always has something interesting to shoot. Nice shot.

NYC always has something interesting to shoot. Nice shot.

Amen! Thank you sir.

Nicely done.

 

As an archaeologist, and one of the first generative aestheticians (oh, yes!), I find the interplay of the fire escape stairs and the graffiti interesting too. :)

I like this, and have seen the Pearl Paint building many many times. I'm also a fan of NYC fire escapes. A friend who lives up there (LES) told me he saw somewhere that this is a phenom that, while not necessarily limited to NYC per se, isn't too common in other major cities. I've often tried to make photos of fire escapes up there but distortion from not being able to get a straight-on shot drives me batty.

 

I like this, too, as others do- because of the varying textures and aesthetics on display in neighboring buildings. Architecture is fascinating. A very "essence of NYC" photo here.