Welcome to New York

This site contains photographs of a number of areas in New York City. While a few are historic, most have been taken since the Fall of 2001, when I got my first digital camera.

The idea for this collection began on a summer afternoon in when I was discussing the parks of New York a family friend in Louisiana. His image of a park was a place that you drive to and he had no concept of an entity such as Central Park. He (and most non-New Yorkers - including myself before my transplantation) have an image of New York as the canyons of steel and concrete typified by the Empire State Building and it's midtown environs.

While that characterization is true of parts of this fair city, New York is much more diverse than many people realize. Each neighborhood has its own look and character. However, seeing those different facets of the city requires more than a simple drive through the city. Indeed, after over a decade here I still occasionally find myself in an area I have never seen before, with its own unique collection of sights, sounds and smells.

In 1997 I purchased a couple of disposable cameras and began photographing some of more verdant parts of New York that I frequent. In 2001, after publishing those photos as a web design project, I felt impelled to increase the quality of the images and began adding new digitally photographed scenes on a semi-regular basis.

While this brief collection is in no way an exhaustive exploration of daily life or of the infinite variety of the city, it is a view that is not often seen by those whose only exposure to this city is Law and Order. It is my hope that in the images and the commentary that I can share at least a bit of the awe and wonder I have felt in having the privilege to live in the greatest city in the world.