Thursday, March 27, 2008

Empire State

With the Empire State Building one of my favorites among New York's larger buildings, I've enjoyed working just around the corner from it for the last year. Everywhere one goes in this neighborhood one can find it peeking out from behind all of the other height-challenged structures. And if buildings are organic structures, anthropomorphized by so many authors (particularly in children's books), then the apartment towers and blocks of offices in this neighborhood must suffer an inferiority complex in the shadow of this tower of steel, glass, and stone. I always marvel at the irony of this confident - and yes, phallic - symbol for New York, since it was constructed at one of the lowest points in the history of this city and nation. It at least provided jobs for several thousand New Yorkers desperate for employment in the period before Roosevelt moved from Albany to Washington and launched the relief programs of the New Deal. (And like so many New York residents, I've never done the "tourist thing" and gone to the observation deck!)

The middle photo was taken as a sepia image, then photoshopped a bit as an experiment.



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2 comments:

BooCat said...

Oh, take your boys and go do the tourist thing. I do every chance I get. I'm really easy in the entertainment department.
Once on the observation deck, I can observe my actual favorite skyscraper in NYC, the Chrysler Building. Too bad they don't let you up into the little art deco windows at the top of that one.

P.S. Your photos are spectacular as usual.

P.P.S. BrianC, A friend and I have set a small Hav-a-Heart near a colony of ferals down by the river to try to trap a couple of spring kittens before they go too wild or the foxes eat them. This is a beautiful colony of coal black cats, but their territory is being taken over by new condo development. I hope to save two before animal control gets them as far as the shelter. I will keep you posted.

jennifer black said...

Very cool!