Scribbles and Photos

  Do we believe in the distopian future of many a pundit, that NYC real estate will never come back from the gut punch that is the COVID19 pandemic? Or do we have the faith of the developers whose buildings continue to rise and reshape the NYC city skyline (sometimes for the worse)?   

Summer 2019 Two summers with two decidedly different vibes here in NYC.  The approach to photography? Same.  Both photos shot from my navel as I was walking behind someone.  Apparently, my navel was approximately level to the pockets on both occasions.    Summer 2020

Up until about 10 minutes ago, I was convinced that I had taken a photo of a trash bag filled with empty gin and tonic bottles back in early June. I had a whole backstory planned for 500px about my first boss who used to use cheap gin and cheap vodka to make gin that tasted remarkably like Tangueray (the original). Or maybe it tasted like Tangueray because he poured that cheap concoction out of a Tangueray bottle? I remember slowly sipping  Gin & Tonics on the wide front porch of his house with colleagues and thinking that this was adulting at its finest. I swore off gin after over-imbibing it at a house party that we threw (also adulting). This was all in my 20s.  Gin recently crept back into my life and my house because of Negronis, Zoom cocktail hours, and sheltering-in-place. These days it's Bombay Sapphire. I'll save the Campari stories for when I find a bag filled with empty Campari bottles. Hmm, a trip to Italy may be in order since I'm not sure how ...

Since I wrote Cigarette Butts , I've made a trashy movie that, quite literally, consists of the trash that I saw on an early morning walk last Thursday (July 9th) on the upper Westside of NYC. I also found another cigarette butt at the base of one of the statues in Madison Square Park and read up on how toxic said butts  are for our environment .  No doubt about it, smoking is not good for anyone.      View this post on Instagram So, I made a trashy movie out of my photos from a July morning walk in the era of #COVID19 on the Upper Westside of Manhattan. This all started because I am obsessed with Irving Penn’s photos of cigarettes. When you start hunting for the #butts on the ground, you see a lot of other trash along the way. The cover photo for this reminds me of my Mom, always the 💄 on the end of her #cigarettes. #NYC #garbage A post shared by Nancy Lundebjerg (@nlundebjerg) on Jul 11, 2020 at 10:18am PDT We humans make a lot of g...

I aspire to take a photo of a cigarette butt that rises to the level of Irving Penn (https://fraenkelgallery.com/exhibitions/irving-penn-14-cigarettes).  Except, I want mine to be "in situ" as opposed to bringing them home for an extended photo shoot.  The truth? My garbage photography aspirations are not limited to cigarettes. 

Times Square (July 2014) Times Square in the COVID19 Era (May 2020)

I taught myself how to extricate an external hard drive from it's case today.  There truly is a YouTube video for everything.  Now I anxiously await a replacement case to see if the hard drive itself still works.  Mercifully, I save my SD cards as back up but I really do need to spend some time more time getting rid of photos that aren't up to snuff.  Except, sometimes, a photo that didn't catch my fancy at first glance does so weeks, months, even years later. The photo above was shot from my navel -- I kept walking and clicking in the hopes that something would catch what my eye was seeing.  For the two below, I actually stopped and aimed my camera.

In the era of COVID-19, the Trader Joe's lines have been long and yesterday morning's was no exception -- stretching three blocks. A small confession: I have never really understood Trader Joe's which may be because I have always been someone who wanders the aisles a bit aimlessly in pursuit of a mental list of ingredients or household items. This is also the reason why I try not to shop when hungry.

The empty streets of NYC on a rainy day in April during the era of #COVID19.

I bet this handsome pup is used to getting lots of love on his daily walks. He was looking so hopeful that Mom would stop to chat with someone but in this era of #COVID19, we can't help wondering if the person walking towards us is sloughing virus no matter how healthy they might look. So she kept walking and so did I.

I have to confess, I felt a small twinge of jealousy that he had scored paper towels. Mind you, I have no current need for paper towels but it's that sense of anxiety about potentially not being able to find them when I need them. The good news is that I did not give IN to the anxiety buy a two pack at that CVS (where they just happened to have some yesterday).

The mostly empty streets of NYC on a recent sunny Sunday (or was it Saturday?). Days just flow into each other when one is sheltering in place. 

Strawberry Field In the era of social distancing, the benches in Central Park are mostly empty which makes it easy to find a quiet spot to sit in sections of the park that are typically REALLY crowded on a sunny Easter Sunday in April.  Both of these photos were shot "from the hip" -- something I started in the summer of 2019. Basically, I see something interesting, ahead of me and try and capture it on film. This style results in a lot of "misses" but it's fun going through my camera roll to see what I got. Bow Bridge

Lincoln Memorial at Sunrise (1) I wrote in a prior post focused on the about finding time to see the sights when traveling for business ( Phoenix Street Art scene ).  One way to do that is to get up really early in the morning to see the sunrise from an iconic location that is at the top of most visitors' lists. Lincoln Memorial at Sunrise (2)

Coming... No Tartan Day Parade this year (it would have been yesterday). Sadly, this meant that there were no men in kilts wandering around the streets of NYC so these photos from 2016 will have to suffice. ...and Going

Social Distancing When I travel for work, I like to use my free time to see things (causing some people to think I'm always on vacation). A few years ago, I was at the  # AAHPM17  meeting in Phoenix which has an amazing street art scene. The convention center is close to the Roosevelt Row Arts District -- making it easy to take a walk and still make my meetings!  Melancholy Wind in Her Hair Photo Shoot Queen

Security Guard with Art I was challenged a while ago to post ten travel photos with no explanation con Facebook which I completed (it was difficult to provide no explanation but I managed to adhere to the rules).  Given that my wings are a bit clipped these days (#socialdistancing #COVID19 #armchairtraveler), I've been revisiting past trips as captured by my camera and iPhone (Travel: #Next). These photos are from a 2017 trip to Italy.  They were languishing unedited on my hard drive and it was fun to exercise my google search skills to track down where and what they are. Where : Scuola Grande di Santa Maria della Misericordia, Venice, Italy What (top): Designing Complexity exhibition by Marco Piva (just a small piece of it) What ( bottom): Frescoes from the School of Paolo Veronese (but really I was entranced by the reflection of the windows on the floor) Reflections

Natural... Man-Made

I went to Iceland to see the northern lights. No luck on seeing the lights -- nature can be fickle like that.  But I did get an opportunity to twirl alone in the great vast whiteness that is Iceland in the winter. What's better than that?

It will surprise no one who knows me well that there was a cemetery visit on a recent Texas Road Trip that took us from Austin to Marfa to Big Bend and back to Austin. We saw shooting stars, lots of art (including the Target (Marathon) and Prada Store (Marfa) . The Terlingua Cemetery dates back to 1903 and among those buried there are miners who died in mining accidents or died from mercury poisoning and residents who succumbed to the flu epidemic of 1918-19. Graves are often marked by simple wooden crosses but a number of the later graves reflect the lives -- and loves -- of those who are buried there. Fitting to stop by in the harsh light of the Texas sun. Rest in peace.