I Love New York
How many blog posts begin with that title? Plenty, I’d imagine, and there’s probably a good reason for that. Plus, a recent weekend trip to the big city with my family confirmed that feeling. We ate bagels. We ate pizza. We road the subway and visited the old neighborhood. We blew the kids’ minds when we walked out of Penn Station and into the beating heart of the city (neither of them had ever seen anything quite like that). We were welcomed with warmth by everyone we encountered. Well, except that one lady… but hey, that’s New York! Anyway, I expected a lot of what we experienced but was surprised when I found myself missing it all.
After returning home I found myself digging back through old photos… and now you have to look at them too!
New York gets a bad rep. A reputation built largely on its ancient past and kept alive by Facebook-grade conjecture. Whenever I tell folks that I lived there they tend to make a face and wonder out loud what that was like. The most common assumption, of course, is that New Yorkers are in someway rude or mean, which couldn’t be farther from the truth. They’re direct, which I appreciate, but no more rude than anyone else. They work hard, move fast, and mind their business… but they’ll stop and help without hesitation. They’re loud, expressive, unapologetic. They want to be seen and heard. And they’re funny. My favorite observation about New Yorkers came from Jerry Seinfeld on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. When asked why he lives in New York instead of Los Angeles, he says something along the lines of: “Everyone in New York is funny. The garbage man is funny, the guy in the elevator is funny.” It’s something I’d felt but could never articulate until hearing it.
More than anything, New York is welcoming. Yes, welcoming.
All of these photos were taken during the nine years I lived in New York before moving to Maine in 2015. A handful of these images are from assignments, the rest are just snapshots taken while wandering around the city. I have photos of the Empire State Building and other iconic sites but for this post thought I’d share images of what really makes NYC so special, the real reason I and so many others love New York. They’re not my best photos, but I sure enjoyed taking them.
Thanks for sharing! You moved to Maine 1yr before me.
Pretty cool, man. I'm always disappointed if someone says they don't like cities. They are dynamic, interesting, full of life, and concentrated humanity. I get that people want to get away from that sometimes, it's overwhelming, but it's where most of the action in the world is, where most of the decisions are being made and certainly where the creatives tend to congregate. A lot of popular artists would work in remote locations, then go back to the city to sell their work. I get it.