Last night was the opening exhibition reception for Bronx X Bronx at the Bronx Documentary Center. All are welcomed to attend this wonderful show of Bronx photographers and see the wonderful gallery space that has brought so much inspiration to this area of the South Bronx. This free exhibition continues until October 12th. Yours truly is also fortunate to have one photograph of the High Bridge in the exhibition. Come and check it out!
I will return to work on Monday after a two-week long spring break during which I went on a number of largely successful photo shoots along the Harlem River. I tried as best I could to take advantage of the time that I had off to capture some of the subjects that had remained on my to-do-list. As is usually the case, variables such as poor weather, prevented me from checking all the subjects off my list but it was fun and successful break photographically, nonetheless. I also made time to do a bit of pleasure reading. Cara A. Sutherland’s Bridges of New York City (2003) is a beautiful and richly informative book full of captivating black and white photographs of many of the city’s most significant spans. As expected, most of the book is devoted to the iconic bridges of the East River – Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, (Ed Koch) Queensboro Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge – and the Hudson River’s George Washington Bridge. To my surprise, however, she focuses on the history and significance of …
This afternoon I took a short ride on the Metro-North up to the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers where I saw the temporary exhibition – Industrial Sublime: Modernism and the Transformation of New York’s Rivers, 1900-1940 – before it ends next week. It was my first visit to the Hudson River Museum and I was impressed by both its permanent collection (especially, its Hudson River paintings of the Yonkers area) as well as the temporary exhibit, which I had traveled to see. Industrial Sublime was made up of paintings representing all three area rivers: the Hudson, East, and Harlem. While I was most interested in seeing the artistic representations of the Harlem River, it was inspiring to see them all. In fact, many of the exhibition’s most memorable images were of the Hudson and East Rivers. As with any art exhibition, it is always a thrill to see and examine images in person that you might have seen previously in a book or magazine. I had the opportunity to do this with a few of …
I was pleasantly surprised to find Farai Chideya’s story titled Traveling While Black in Friday’s New York Times. As a African-American, who shares a similar thrill for the road (especially international travel), it was reassuring to read about the travel experiences of Chideya and other people of color. Ever since my 2002-2003 Watson Fellowship year, I have had the wanderlust bug and during recent years, photography has become an increasingly important element of my travel experiences abroad. Many of the observations that Chideya state, I myself have been a witness to and have wondered about. Definitely worth reading.
Last weekend, The New York Times wrote a favorable review of the art exhibition – Industrial Sublime – at the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers. I hope to check it out during the winter break. The Hudson River Museum also produced the following video tour of the exhibition.
Last week, my article – The High Bridge Reclaims Its History With $61M Restoration – was published at Curbed NY. It’s a historic piece that dives into the origins of New York City’s oldest bridge and its rise as an important recreational destination; its most difficult period beginning in the 1950s, and then, its long desired rebirth beginning in 2001 and culminating in the present work to restore and reopen it for public use next year. I hope you enjoy it.
Below are two wonderful images from about 1905 that I found at Shorpy.com, an historical photo archive website. On the left is Highbridge Park and the Harlem River Speedway (the Harlem River Drive today) and dominating the center is the beautiful Washington Bridge. I love the carriages!
Here’s a great time lapse video by Stephen Mallon documenting the installation of the new Willis Avenue Bridge back in 2010. A Bridge Delivered from stephen mallon on Vimeo.
This past Monday was the opening show of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s 60th Patient Art Show, where I’ve been displaying samples of my work for the past few years. This year I displayed two photographs of the Wards Island Bridge on canvas. At the end of Monday’s opening night, neither was sold but I found out from a dear friend that by the end of Wednesday, the last day of the event, both had been sold. So, this was great! Later this week, I received an email from the BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) Awards Panel, which stated that I was not selected to be a 2013 BRIO recipient. I was very hopeful that I would win one of their $3,000 BRIO awards given annually to selected Bronx-based artists in a variety of mediums. I had hoped to use the award money to purchase a new camera, the Nikon D800. At the same time, the recognition of A BRIO would be a fantastic way to get my name out there and make meaningful contacts. Nevertheless, I will …
I’ve found and added a number of different paintings and photographs of the Harlem River Valley into my archives, but until only a couple of days ago I hadn’t thought much about postcards as sources. It turns out that postcards are great sources! They offer a historically accurate but also popular representation of each subject. They are also fun to look at. Below are a few of these postcards from the early 20th century. Stay tuned for more.
Duane Bailey-Castro | Photo Blog 