Street Fashion and a Blender

Yesterday, as part of my professional development day, I went to a talk by one of our school's photography teachers about picture-taking with a mobile phone. I thought it might give me some good tips on how to take better iPhone pictures, but unfortunately it mostly taught me that I need a new phone.

Apparently the iPhone 13 is now state of the art, and I have a 6s, purchased way back in 2015. I had no idea I was so behind the curve, but anyway, many of the teacher's helpful hints didn't help me at all because I don't have the features and controls available on the newer phones. Argh!

Still, it inspired me to gather some recent iPhone shots into a post -- so, here goes!

First, a discarded tabletop plastered with stickers, seen on my walk home yesterday afternoon.

Here's a phone booth where -- thanks to a discarded barstool -- you can actually have a (very wobbly) seat to make a call. Assuming the phone is still working, which is a big assumption.

Dave's grandmother stitched a needlepoint sampler when he was born, bearing his name, his parents' names and his birthday, among some floral and animal designs. It's been living in a cheap frame, poorly protected, and I decided to have it reframed as a surprise for Dave. (He doesn't know about it, and he never reads my blog, so he won't find out about it here.) Anyway, when the guy at the frame shop and I peeled off the paper on the back we found this -- apparently Dave's grandmother, in 1968, mounted the sampler on cardboard cut from a blender box! We're leaving the sampler on the cardboard in the new frame, because his grandmother glued it so securely -- so the blender will live on, a surprise to be found by future generations.

A van I saw in Broadstairs. Someone has a dramatic streak.

I see signs like this around town occasionally and I have NO idea what they're about. Anybody know?

Well, that's an interesting look.

Here's another interesting look. This raincoat was painted by a street artist named Haculla who I know from my years in New York. It was pretty surreal to see it walking down the street in London, but apparently he has a clothing line now.

Finally, Olga came home from her walk last night with a dirty face and eyebrow. It did not detract from her soulful eyes.

Witness

I went to check out the site of the crane collapse last night. I was curious to see it for myself -- maybe a macabre instinct, but an entirely human one. (Plus, I’m a journalist!) It was very strange, standing on Second Avenue and looking up into someone’s living room, where the wall opened in a gaping yawn.

It’s amazing how we live with certain dangers every day, without even being aware of them.

And speaking of dangers, for a compelling first-hand account of the Atlanta tornado, check out Jes’ blog here.

(Photo: Haculla street art, East Village, March 2008)

Stanton Street, February and April 2007

Here's another before-and-after comparison. This doorway on Stanton Street caught my eye in February, with the interesting light, the face by Haculla and the Pentagram by Neck Face.

(For some reason, graffiti artists and taggers always target doors. I've wondered why this happens. Maybe people are more likely to notice the art as they go in and out? Maybe repainting a door is cheaper than painting a wall - and thus easier to deal with if they get caught? Or maybe the door is just the natural focus of a building's facade, and so draws the tagger's eye, just as it draws mine?)


In any event, when I walked past this particular door on Saturday, it looked like this. Strange that someone went to the trouble of painting over Neck Face, but left Haculla and indeed allowed the rest of the graffiti on the door to proliferate.

Maybe they just didn't like that Pentagram.

East Village, Sept. 2006

Haculla is a graffiti artist whose mustachioed faces appear on walls in SoHo. Here, a few blocks north on Lafayette Street, he/she added some extra spice to an Apple advertisement.