Wednesday, May 21, 2008

High School Gone Wild

Last weekend I went to Beacon, NY for an art show with some friends. One of them has a friend that has a studio in an old high school up there that has been converted to artist studios. It was so fun to walk the halls with the added distractions of all of the art. A slice of heaven on earth.

I was obsessed with the lockers...some still in use!



This shot I think shows the marriage of the school and the artist inhabitants.



Inside the friend's studio. It says "I was bored before I even began."

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Dead Horse Bay

Our latest adventure led us out to Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn. The history behind this place is that the refuse from horse rendering plants and garbage of the 1920s and 1930s was deposited here when it was a landfill. The land was later filled over with sand to connect the mainland and Barren Island. Overtime, this has begun to erode away, exposing the remnants of the past. The beach is filled with mostly bottles, but some old shoes, rusted equipment and tools from days long gone can also be found. You can't help but create stories in your head of the previous owners and consumers of these things as you stroll through the historic trash.













The old beverage bottles were quite interesting. There were the classics like Coke, Pepsi and 7-Up, but I might have to research some of the more obscure ones we found.

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Eastern State Penitentiary

Recently we took an adventure to Philly to check out the Eastern State Penitentiary. This is the preserved ruins of a prison built in 1829 where the concept of solitary confinement was introduced (until overcrowding). The complex was in operation until 1972 when it was abandoned. It's a photographer's paradise and we were there on a cloudy dreary day that just added to the mood and mystery.





This is actually death row.










This is the prison where Al Capone served time when things weren't going well back in Chicago. He had a plush cell compared to the others, but oddly enough none of us could get a good shot of it. Perhaps he didn't want us to.