Open Air 8 x 10

I made these images during OPEN AIR 8 X 10, an interactive fashion shoot at the Grace Building's Plaza during New York Fashion week. Models in the latest couture by up-and-coming Hungarian designers posed during lunch hour with passersby. Photographers Peter Hapak and Gabor Mate used 8 x 10 polaroid cameras paying tribute to American fashion photographers Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton. The photos were exhibited on the glass cube entrance of the International Center of Photography's offices.

9/11 Memorial Preview Site

The 9/11 Memorial Preview Site is the place to visit to learn about the plans for and progress of Memorial and Museum currently being built at the World Trade Center site. The real time images of the construction progress can be viewed here. In addition, visitors can participate in the creation of the Museum by sharing their 9/11 story. The 9/11 Memorial Preview Site is located at 
20 Vesey St (At Church Street) near the WTC site. 

Hours: 
Monday - Wednesday, Friday - Saturday: 10am - 7pm
Thursday: 10am - 9pm 
Sunday: 10am - 6pm

. Admission is free.


Fourth Arts Block (FAB) Festival and Block Party

These are some of the performers at the Central Stage of the FOURTH ARTS BLOCK (FAB) Festival and Block Party last Saturday on 4th Street between Bowery and 2nd Avenue. The festival featured multiple indoor and outdoor stages, classes and activities for all ages, gourmet food vendors and a flea market. Performers included the Tze Chun Dance, East Village Dance Project, Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Eva Dean Dance, Urban Dance Collective, among others.

Fourth Arts Block (FAB) is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 by cultural and community groups to establish and advance the East 4th Street Cultural District, between 2nd Avenue and Bowery. FAB provides a variety of services to its member organizations including leading the development and conversion of 100,000 square feet of cultural space, marketing and promotion of the district, as well as offering discount ticketing and other community events and programs.

Home to more than a dozen arts groups, 10 cultural facilities and 17 performances and rehearsal venues, the East 4th Street Cultural District attracts an annual audience of 200,000, serves 1,200 artists and provides more square feet of active cultural use than any other block in New York. 
The East 4th Street Cultural District is nationally recognized as an incubator for new work and diverse artistic voices by supporting experimental performances and cutting-edge productions and is proud of its outstanding records for racial and ethnic diversity, free and low cost programs, and training for emerging artists and youth.

Marcel Odenbach's Paper on Paper Collage: "You Can't See the Forest for the Trees"

Detail of the collage

One of the large collages on display at the Museum of Modern Art is MARCEL ODENBACH'S "You Can't See the Trees in the Forest." Odenbach (German, born 1953) created this piece using cut-and-pasted printed paper, ink and pencil on two pieces of paper in 2003. The work plays on a common expression, and is a plea to not only see this particular forest as a forest but also take into account its context: the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was named after the many birch trees surrounding the complex (from MOMA caption).

Ken Johnson writes, "Mr. Odenbach's collages have some visual interest. In ''You Can't See the Forest for the Trees,'' which measures about 7 by 10 feet, there is a productive tension between the cohesive image of a birch forest and the disjunctive patchwork of texts and photographs from which it is made. That we construct the world out of zillions of scraps of received information is philosophically intriguing; but Mr. Odenbach's banal social messages short-circuit more imaginative possibilities."

Broadway Open Call Karaoke

Seth Rudetsky, host

These are the Broadway karaoke fans who participated in last Thursday night's "Broadway Open Call Karaoke" at Duffy Square on Broadway and 7th Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets. Hosted by Seth Rudetsky, the event featured ticket giveaways. The karaoke is part of the Back2Broadway Month festivities.

"Sand Painting" by Joe Mangrum

This is New York City installation and multiple medium street artist JOE MANGRUM working on his SAND PAINTING in Union Square Park last Sunday. Using multi-colored sand, he spent 8 to 10 hours to create this mandala form.

Joe Mangrum (Born February 10, 1969) is an installation and multiple-medium artist. He currently resides in New York City. Born and raised in Florissant, Missouri, he later attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1991. His focus of study was on painting and photography, though after art school he began to expand his work into site-specific, environmental and often ephemeral installations. Using a wide spectrum of components, his work often includes organic materials, such as flowers, food and sand, in addition to deconstructed computer parts, auto-parts and a multitude of found and collected objects. His installations often include mandala forms, pyramids, maps, grids and mushroom clouds. (biography notes from wikipedia).

For more information on Joe Mangrum and his unique art, please visit his website at: http://www.joemangrum.com/

2009 Mexican Independence Day Parade

One of the most colorful parades in Manhattan is the Mexican Independence Day Parade. The parade celebrates Mexico's independence from Spain. The parade began in the 1990s. The Mexican Independence Parade is a great celebration that brings together many colorful floats, musical and artistic groups, dancers representing different regions of Mexico, and community leaders. I captured some of the parade participants during the parade last Sunday, September 20th on Madison Avenue and 27th Street.