When I was in junior high or maybe freshman year high school, my older sister gave me this orange sparkly fish-eye camera and I loved it! I used to take it everywhere and I was so excited every time I got my photos developed. That camera eventually broke, but it’s what originally got me into photography.
I also tried to take a photography class in community college, but I ended up dropping it because I was a little overwhelmed with all the other classes I signed up for. But I really enjoyed learning different photo techniques, and I even got to learn how to develop my own photos!
My evil college ex boyfriend was also a photographer, so I’d follow him around walks on campus as he took pictures of bikes, or shadows, or trees that stood out to him. And not long after I moved back home from university, we found one of my mom’s old film cameras in the garage and I started taking it everywhere with me just like my old fish-eye camera.
When I inevitably broke up with my evil college boyfriend, my sister flew me out to New York to cheer me up. I had a hard time getting out of bed that whole week, but knowing I was in New York and that I’d get to spend the day exploring helped a little.
Most of these photos are actually from a later NYC trip a few months later for my birthday. I really wanted to see the cherry blossoms bloom in the city! These are some of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken!
Posting them felt like reclaiming an art form I’d associated with my ex for a so long. It’s like I was taking photography back and making it my own again, as dramatic as that sounds.
It also felt good, as someone who is only a casual photographer, to take really impressive shots of the city. Like I know nothing about what film is the best, or what ISO to use, or which camera has what setting, but I can still be good at this? Wild loll!
Being around my ex and his photographer buddies, made me feel like knowledge of and investment in the best tools are what make you a good photographer / creative. But art is so much more simple and inviting than that!
As I visited all these different places, and photographed them, I also started keeping a little list of things I enjoyed in the city and things I didn’t. I was starting to figure out what life felt like on my own again, and figuring who I was without my ex boyfriend and old college friends that I lost as a result of breaking up with him. It was a way of coping with the complex feelings I was dealing with at the time. There was this big contrast between enjoying my time in the city, and coming home to my sister’s apartment to cry over everything that had happened again.
Things I Like About New York (Dec 2023)
Emerging from a subway stop into a brand new place
Dogs in puffer vests
The girl who jumped the turnstile then turned around to open the door for me, seconds before the train took off
Things I Don’t Like About New York
The sound of the elevator in my sister’s building when it gets to each floor
The way my shoelaces untie every few minutes
The record store employee who keeps trying to get me to look at the CDs behind the counter – “Leave your stuff, stay for a while” “Have I seen you before?” “You free tonight?”
Things I Like About New York
The CDs I bought as an excuse to leave the store, New Wave for me, Billie Holiday for my sibling and 70s hits for my mom
Taking the train one stop just to avoid Times Square
Christmas markets in Bryant Park
Things I Don’t Like About New York
The stores with tiny claustrophobic isles – saying “sorry, excuse me” over and over
The guy at the party who puts his hand on my knee as he gets up from the couch
Motorcyclists who drive on the sidewalk
Things I Like About New York
People playing live music on every corner
Eating bagels and walking in central park
The way the leaves fly in the wind
Things I Don’t Like About New York
Zoning out and missing my subway stop
Feeling sore from walking all day
Getting used to the time change
Things I Like About New York
That I’m 2,923 miles away from you
Things I Don’t Like About New York
That I’m 2,923 miles away from you
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