In Just One Day

Quiet Morning on 200 Central Park South, 2005

I sometimes think of photography essays or projects that are large and long-term. But I’m not always very good about completing them. The older I get the more I wonder whether I’d have been diagnosed with some kind of attention deficiency had I come along later.

In any event, I’m assured every now and then when I find something that is purposely brief. It doesn’t have to be an event or anything of great importance or insight. Sometimes I don’t even notice I’ve done it until after it’s over.

During a trip to visit our daughter in New York in 2005 I took a series of pictures that I thought told a pretty interesting story about the city “in just one day.” You can see the whole series here.

The series starts just after sunrise with my morning walk and ends at midnight in Times Square, a place I’m not always keen to hang out. In between are stops in the upper west side, central park, Lincoln Center, midtown, downtown, and the theater district. That’s hardly a comprehensive audit of Manhattan, much less the entire city. But at the time I thought it was a pretty cool to include a few quiet morning moments, an exploration of the Ansonia Building, meet a cabbie who wanted me to take his picture “so you can make me famous,” watch a parade of Buddhists and an elephant on Fifth Avenue and end up with a bunch of gawking tourists in Times Square.

Hare Hare, Hare Hare, 2005

I couldn’t help but think of Betty Comden and Adolph Green’s lyrics for "New York, New York," about three sailors with just 24 hours to see New York City, "from Yonkers on down to the bay.” There are lots of swell songs about New York. But this is my favorite. An excerpt:

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town,

The Bronx is up and the Battery's down,

The people ride in a hole in the ground,

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town.

Manhattan women are all dressed in satin, so the fellows say,

There's just one thing necessary in Manhattan,

When you just have one day,

Gotta pick up a date, maybe seven or eight,

By your way, in just one day.

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town,

The Bronx is up and the Battery's down,

The people ride in a hole in the ground,

New York, New York, it's a wonderful town.

(Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green)

On This Stage, 2005

Mama, do these people know Jesus? 2005