Interview: Elizabeth Albin, NYC Photographer

Every year millions of people visit NYC and, doubtless, many of them take pictures to record their memories of the trip.

But what if you live here? Does the impetus to take pictures of the city still exist? 

For many New Yorkers, the answer is a resounding "Yes!". I know lots of them who are amateur photographers and the city is their favorite subject. Yet when they take pictures, they capture it differently. They’re not necessarily looking at the big sights or the skyline – instead, they’re observing the everyday life, the interesting streets and areas that surround them on a daily basis. 

Elizabeth Albin is one such New Yorker. She loves taking pictures of the city, particularly of the nature within and around the asphalt. Here she tells us about her favorite ways to go about photographing her city – and how the impetus to keep doing it is endless. 

How long have you been photographing NYC and what inspired you to do it? 

I've been taking pictures since I got my IPhone 5. I'd be out with my dog, or I would run and look around and decide that thing right there was worth a picture. 

Has this been a lifelong hobby or something you’ve started doing recently? 

It's relatively recent (since 2013 or so). 

Do you like shooting city-scapes at random or are you intentionally looking to capture something when you take a picture? 

Sometimes I'll walk out the door thinking about a theme. I won't always stick with that though. Even when I have a unifying thought (buildings with odd windows on Stanton Street, or Purple Flowers, for example), the day may dictate something else. I end up taking a lot of pictures of bridges and flowers.

What are some of your favorite pictures?

I took some shots of tulips recently that I really liked. Also, whenever I see tree roots conquering the sidewalk. Sometimes I'll see a weed sticking out of an unlikely crack or pier. I love that. Other pictures I like are the sort of beaches at Stuyvesant Cove, and below the Brooklyn Bridge. Excellent sea gulls in both places. 

Is there anything in the city you have shot yet that you’d like to? 

I'd like to take pictures on Randall's Island and Governor's Island. I'll have to get myself up there.

Is there anything else about your pictures of the city that you’d like us to know?

I don't take many pictures of people. Much of the time I want to capture the solitude I enjoy. 

Finally, what do you love about NYC and has taking pictures of it made you learn more about it?

I love that New York has so much wild life. I don't capture even half of what I've seen. That's intentional. Given the choice of experience and image, I'll take experience. Even so, most days I practically trip over something new. 

Thanks! And here are some of her amazing NYC pictures. 

The Royal Wedding in NYC

The Royal Wedding will not, obviously, be in NYC tomorrow -- we cast off the yoke of monarchical imperium nigh two-hundred two-score and two years ago.

But if you want to watch the first American -- and the first bi-racial American at that -- marry into the House of Windsor tomorrow in NYC, there're many places around town where you can do so. 

There are bars, restaurants, lounges, hotels, and all sorts of places hosting viewing parties. Celebrate as a fellow Yank joins monarchy! 

Most of the festivities kick off at 6 AM on Saturday (because, you know, time zones, etc.) so go to bed early tonight, set your alarm, drink lots of coffee -- or TEA! -- and watch history with your fellow citizens of the city where some of the decisive battles of the American Revolution were fought and where the first American president was inaugurated. 

Ask a Native New Yorker

I.e. ask the editor of Gothamist (or listen to him on WNYC).

Or, of course, just ask Mr NYC!

Aaron Schlossberg = Trump Super Tool

In dis-honor of this f-idiot, we present the following report of this now infamous incident in Spanish:

Air War!

There's currently an "air" war between NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer and Airbnb. Stringer recently issued a report claiming that Airbnb and other home sharing apps are increasing the cost of living in the city.

Airbnb strenuously disagrees and has been airing ads attacking the comptroller's report. The hotel trade unions are responding by supporting the report and attacking Airbnb.

It's a classic old vs. new economy, disruptive vs. established business battle, and it's not going to end any time soon. Be prepared to see a lot more fights like this one. 

Tom Wolfe RIP

Just the other night I was looking over my bookcase and pulled out a book I bought a long time ago called The Devil's Candy, about the making of the disastrous movie version of Tom Wolfe's novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. 

How ironic then, that, very next day, Tom Wolfe died here in NYC, aged 87.

Starting in the 1960s, along with writers like Gay Talese and others, Wolfe was an originator of the "New Journalism", a style of non-fiction where reporters would embed themselves with their subjects and write long, probing articles and books in a highly personal, provocative, almost literary way. Wolfe became the most popular New Journalist of all, writing about the heroes and anti-heroes of American life, from hippies to astronauts like Ken Kesey and the Yippies in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the Black Panthers in Radical Chic (a term he coined), the Mercury astronauts in The Right Stuff (his most acclaimed work). 

Wolfe's observations were always satirical, never sentimental; always honest, no puffery. He was "politically incorrect" but never offensive -- he held the mirror up to nature, oftentimes brutally, and did so in wild, hyperbolic prose. Wolfe loved periods and italicizes and fast, whirling sentences -- there was a rock'n'roll sensibility to his words, an energy that hit your "solar plexus" (to use a term Wolfe repeated ad nauseum in his writing).

In the 1980s, Wolfe switched from journalism to fiction, publishing his legendary NYC novel The Bonfire of the Vanities in 1987. I've written a lot about this book over the years -- a novel that presents NYC as hellish landscape of greed, crime, and yes, vanity -- so I won't say any more except that it serves both as a piece of great entertainment and a lacerating commentary of this city at that time. Wolfe wrote a few more novels, most notably A Man in Full in 1998, but none equaled Bonfire -- his last few novels received poor reviews and sales -- and he became a relic of the 20th century. But he influenced endures.

Wolfe also became famous for his trademark white suit that he always wore in public. I saw him speak several times over the years and he always donned the suit with complimentary white reading glasses. 

And I ever spoke to him once. 

Once, at a book signing, I mentioned that he had been a big influence to me and that I wanted to write as well. "What kind of things do you like to write?" he asked. I said fiction. He wished me luck -- and, years later, I published my first novel Leaving New York (which you can look to and purchase on the right-hand of this blog). 

Tom Wolfe inspired me to do it and, for that, I thank him  -- and for everything he ever wrote.

Seinfeld Finale @ 20

It's crazy to realize that it's been twenty years since one of the greatest shows of all-time, and certainly one of the quintessential NYC shows, went off the air.

Seinfeld defined the '90s and popularized the NYC neuroses for middle America like no show before or since. In many ways, you can look at this show as part of the transformation of NYC from Fear City to Luxury Product. 

Read more about how Seinfeld came to be and also check out Mr NYC's various Seinfeld-related coverage over the years, including my exclusive interview with Kenny Kramer! 

Even though it's two decades in the past, Seinfeld is a show that'll never be forgotten and that people'll always yada-yada about. 

$28 Per Month

What's the biggest story in NYC this week?

Not the resignation of the AG or any of the important stuff but the fact that there was a woman who, until she died recently, was paying only $28 per month for a Greenwich Village apartment.

It's truly a story out of time, of another time, of the past made present -- a story of a woman who found a great real estate deal back in 1955 and stuck with it for the next 63 years. All New Yorkers should be so lucky.  

In this case, the rent was too damn low. 

Review: "Three Tall Women"

The playwright Edward Albee shot to fame in the early 1960s with his masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? He followed that up with other successful plays, including the Pulitzer Prize-winners Seascape and A Delicate Balance (oft revived on Broadway). But in the 1980s and early 1990s, his plays fell into critical disfavor, and Albee was viewed as a once-great, now mediocre talent. 

Three Tall Women in 1994 marked his comeback, snagging Albee a third Pulitzer Prize.

A very "meta" play featuring three women simply named A, B, and C, it's an examination of aging and the pain of life. In the first act, A is an old women being looked after by B and working with C, a lawyer, on her legal and financial matters. A is a loud, crass woman, torturing B with her bad behavior and largely ignoring C's concerns. Then A has a stroke -- and we literally go inside her head as B and C become A at earlier times in her life, and we learn more about the story of A's background and her broken relationship with her son. It is, in some ways, a nihilistic play as we learn that the happiest moment in any person's life is death -- but that we should always remember what joy (no matter how little) we have had.

The production of Three Tall Women currently on Broadway has become the event of the season as it marks the return of Glenda Jackson, the brilliant British actress, to the New York stage after 30 years (she spent 23 of those last 30 years as a member of the British parliament). Jackson plays A, and commands the stage as only a monster talent like she can. She is loud, vulgar, funny, narcissistic and, ultimately, sympathetic. Jackson blasts humanity into A, making us rattle her wake, and her performance is both a tour-de-force and a gale force of great acting. Seeing her on the stage was something I'll never forget. It's her show all the way. 

 The other two actresses, Laurie Metcalf (from Roseanne and the wonderful film Lady Bird) as B, and Allison Pill (from The Newsroom) as C, support her well. While A is the star part, B and C are vital in reflecting her, both as separate characters and as part of her. Metcalf brings her easy charm to B, making us remember why she won two Emmys for Roseanne -- she's naturally funny, comfortable and confident in both her parts. Pill has always been a good screen actress but she's even better on the stage -- her part, and her performance, have a mystery that makes you almost wish the play was about her, although it would be a very different play. 

 All of the parts are well written. Albee's plays are always rather over the top with people yelling at each other at top volume but he strikes at what makes people tick and, in Three Tall Women, he does it very well. Go see this if you can, you won't forget it.

Picturing the City

Among the many, many, many-to-infinity things I have no talent at, you can include drawing and photography among them. I can't take a decent photograph to save my life (ask my wife, ba dum bum) and, when it comes to drawing, it's like trying to breath in outer space -- hopeless, not at all possible, entirely for naught.

So people who can draw well and take great photographs, I admire the hell out of.

Naturally, a beautiful, diverse, teaming city like New York provides ample opportunities for sketchers and photographers to record great images. Be it the buildings, the streets, the parks, the people, the opportunities NYC affords to such artists is never-ending.

That takes us to two very different projects, currently on display in NYC, where you can see photos and drawings of the city that'll amaze you.

First, Stanley Kubrick. Yes, that guy, one of the greatest filmmakers who ever lived. Years before he made such classics as Dr. Strangelove, 2001, and A Clockwork Orange, Kubrick was a kid photographer from the Bronx, working for Look magazine. He took a vast number of pictures all over the city in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and you can see them in an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York. These pictures are amazing, brilliant captures of New Yorkers and the post-war city. If he had never directed film, Kubrick's photography would still be worth showing all these decades later. It's amazing to think that these photos, which look like they were done by a seasoned professional, were made by someone just out of high school with no formal training. You can see how Kubrick, even then, had impressive visual sensibility, a great "eye", and an innate ability to recognize and frame memorable images. Years before he had a guy riding a missile and crafting some of the most memorable images in cinema history, Kubrick's vision was at work on the streets in NYC.  

Second, the subway. A man named Philip Coppola has undertaken a mission to sketch every one of the 400+ subway stations in NYC. He's been doing it since 1984 and has so far produced six volumes of these drawings. These are meticuleous, finely realized pictures and reveals the true beauty and craftsmanship that went into the building of many of these stations. Right now, at the New York City Transit Museum Annex at Grand Central there is exhibit of several of these pictures and they really make you look at the subway, literally, a different way. Coppola says that he think he'll be dome by 2030 so there's lots more to come.

Picturing NYC is truly an art unto itself.