Upper East Side, Sept. 2007

Anyone who doubts the social power of the Internet should meet up with some of their Web friends. Even if you’ve only known each other in cyberspace, when you meet face to face, you FEEL like you know each other. It’s a real relationship; it’s not an illusion.

I’m part of a loose-knit group of photographers on Flickr who document street art in New York City. We all run around and try to capture transient stickers and wheatpastes and spray-painted stencils before they get painted over or cleaned away. We all look through and comment on each others’ photos, keeping track of what’s going on out there in the world of the street.

Yesterday we finally got a chance to get together - eight of us. We met at a centrally located gas station on Houston Street and walked around SoHo shooting stuff, while talking about how we got interested in all the art around us. We compared notes on the artists and on the peculiarities of Flickr, spending a couple of hours out on the street and getting a late lunch. It was really fun! And just like when I met Reya and Ched back in June, I sort of felt like I knew them all already!