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Hi there, thanks for visiting. I've been taking photos of Central Park for over twenty years but have had a love for this faraway place years longer. I began with 35mm, made troubled attempts with 8 X 10", spent my rent on 6X6cm and since 2006 have gone entirely with the use of 4 X 5" film. Not my favorite shape nor as willing to please as my once constant companion; the Nikon-F.
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Irrespective of the format on which I've graven my sojourns in Park over the years one certainty remains, especially when considering the rarity of my river crossings away from this island over the past two decades, were it not for Central Park I would have nothing left to shoot. I am fully aware that a great number of impressive architectural specimens are missing from my collection, as well as images of the human landscape who course the city's arteries and have been the subject of innumerable New York scenes, but my interest isn't held there. Although worthy of even my last sheet of film I prefer to invest my silver in the Park, I'll leave the study of the avenues to the economists report and the big picture to the bankers' abacus, my lens is focused elsewhere.
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With a primary objective to render images of New York City absent of anything anomalous to a rural setting, I subject myself to a challenge before ever heading out. Combine that with going about it using a 110 year old view camera, add rousing outbursts of laughter from my adoring public; particularly when spotted underneath the dark cloth romancing a scene, stir in needless limitations on tripod use, liberally grate frustration on top and (Enjoy) now my subjective objective becomes all the more challenging. Even with my unequivocal position that each person's use of the Park holds equal merit I will admit to this. I should one day like to fix my lens upon even half an acre and find it easy to pull the dark slide on a scene free from all of those things one can imagine being in the center of Manhattan. In addition to what seems like a million Park-goers on fair-weather Sunday's, there are: fences, benches, lamp posts, garbage cans, a shopping cart full of cans, snow ball fighters, snowman makers, cross country skiers, pedicabs, tourists on bicycles, the resident Tour de France guys, etc. And once all else can be likened to nature, a rowboat captain decides to stall their vessel squarely within my frame in order to get that cell phone shot of some nut case with an antique camera.
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Though not adverse to sharing I will say that landscape photography in the Park has been an increasingly difficult aim. Yes it's a popular destination and rightly so. To have such a large well maintained jewel; set in a metropolis unlike any, is undoubtedly advantageous to those who earn an honest living from and them that make a killing from tourism. Property values surrounding the Park are world renowned, so owners could also profit from its gleaming presence, even if they don't live in the city. Its my opinion; however, that use of the Park by more residents than visitors would be of higher value even if intangible. The freedom of a vast space akin to nature may be needed more and felt deeper by the city's inhabitants than by those who might see the chaos of the streets more the attraction. While not business minded nor qualified in any way to comment on what it takes to keep Central Park pretty, it seems to me that the tourist dollar would be far easier to pilfer in Times Square as opposed to Sheep Meadow.
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Please know that I am completely without criticism for visitors to the city who wish to spend their valuable time in Central Park, good choice, I'm happy to know the Park is so well liked, this might aid in it's protection. If I harbor any negative critique, it might be for those who use the Park in their arsenal of marketing tools. Where the Park must be shared with more and more non-residents, movie makers, corporate events, etc., a slight bearing on the availability of it's enjoyment by the resident population may be sustained. This feel-good deficit; however, is hardily replaced with the financial bliss of business done by airlines, hotels, merchants, city coffers, etc. Oh, and lets not forget the crippling usury collected by banks from all of that credit card use. Though, I suppose tourism and sales pitches have helped to build the city in the first place. I'm not so blind that I've failed to noticed everything in the city is for sale, indeed, the island itself had been sold in the past. Even the Statue of Liberty is pimped for the cost of a boat ride. Since the World Trade Center event; however, once there one must acquiesce to a search—a relaxing of civil liberties, ironic, sorrowful, enraging.
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While I stop short of feeling pride in every regard; I'm guilty of flaunting the Park around myself, as my photographs and this website more than adequately prove. Its quite the place but not for sale! The main point I wanted to make with this rambling rant is that serene images of Manhattan are hard to get if ever to be had at all. I don't blame anyone for this, I'm living in a town with eight million people or more and would likely need to pitch my camera upriver a piece in order to get successful landscape photos. Silly as it seems, I will carry through.
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I've often gone to a particular scene, setup my camera and waited two or more hours for the few second window needed to pull the dark slide and shoot, only to return home with the same amount of unexposed film that I left with. If a photographer's preference is to do large format landscape over cityscape and they happen to live in Midtown, well, its needless to reiterate but an exercise in patience must be practiced as earnestly as their craft. It might also be said that such a photographer would be required to wholeheartedly believe in slim possibilities or that they may simply be a fool or perhaps just a tad crazy, I haven't decided. Until I'm convinced of either of the latter two I'll continue to point my 350 megapixel wooden camera around the Park in search of resolution and pleasing compositions without regard for what some surely see as utterly pointless.
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Had you come to this site via a search engine; by way of the business like Print Info page, I apologize. I know that most search the internet not for solicitations but for information alone. If so, I pray I'm able to offer a hint of what you seek. Though you may have no interest in buying one of my Central Park photos, the Park; however, is completely free to visit. If you have yet to wander off the well trodden path I humbly offer my recommendation to venture a go as select areas of the Park remain a sanctum true to their original purpose. For, to be at peace in the North Woods where once a Revolution raged or to find yourself lost in the Ramble with only bird calls from the canopy to give direction may prove to be more than just a respite from the sidewalk. As I recall from my first solo expedition there, much more.
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Even now; after nearly thirty years, if I should linger there, a seeming connection to something ethereal arises, a lifting of the spirit. An infinite difference to what I feel in the world which lies just outside the Park's perimeter; on the perilous grid of impossible deadlines, booby trapped with it's social classes, slave drivers, moneygrubbers, spin doctors, media pawns, political prostitutes, and them that do great violence to the Ideal. Still, there inside the walls; amid that fortress of pseudo-nature, rest can be found. It is a rest which no clock can tally, in a place where true value disables any attempt to calculate a monetary worth and where the boundaries of good cheer defy being dashed upon the rule. It may be of service to all if some of those aforementioned take even an hours' leisure there. Should no detectable transformation be known to the individual, for the collective; who've stepped upon its grounds for 160 years, goes a benefit too profound to measure. Further outside my comprehension; is the perennial existence of so magnificent a parcel, I love her.
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The importance of the Park goes exceedingly beyond it's expansive size. It has gradually become symbolic of something for me, a glimpse of life outside the hive, a breaking away from the hand of man, even inspiring the idea of freedom as it stands defiant against a million overseeing windows which foolishly attempt own it's view. While the Park pays no heed to conquerors she bars admittance to no one. From the jet-set penthouse elites to the subway-faring basement dwellers, all may freely avail themselves to her invaluable refreshment. In this place every walk takes their steps with some universal attraction to nature devoid of any prerequisites dictated by class, creed, or circumstance, an equalizer of sorts. Here, each attendee has an equal share in some organic occurrence well beyond the far reaching talons of even the most cunning social engineer. Truly, nothing within the city's built environment approaches the speciality of Central Park and I am grateful to have had the continued opportunity to document it.
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Having been privy only to public records and antique hearsay regurgitated for generations, I'll approach this with a careful hand. Because I've been around long enough to know that official stories are rarely complete histories, I wonder about an alternative impetus behind so grand an undertaking. Was Central Park meant for it's said purposes, a jaunt to the country for weary city folk living in lower Manhattan, a public works showpiece for a still young but quickly growing city, etc. Yes, I believe this is so but were there other reasons also? Real estate speculations; for example, or maybe as a garnish, among others, in preparation for selling the new world to the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Easy to imagine but if closed door dealing did in fact occur, no one; not even with their greatest of expectations, could have foreseen the likes of what has grown up and around the Greensward Plan. Yet; to this day, upon it's 843 acres, not one square foot holds private residence, bewildering.
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As much as I would like to share my love for the Park by offering you silver prints free of cost, in the costly city one step beyond its carefree acreage even my time must carry a monetary value. As for any artistic value, well, that I give away for free. My photographic attempts may be worth more than nothing, or nothing, artless and naive, admirable or laughable, a worthwhile involvement or a delusional expense of precious time and hard earned money. I will leave this for you to determine, my efforts are sincere.
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It has often been said, "the trees in Central Park are the lungs of the city". While I share no accord with that bit of casual science; I will without reservation attest, they are it's heart. I realize such an affinity with the Park is not unanimous amongst New Yorkers, not even by some who've afforded millions to acquire the bird's-eye view. Nonetheless, for those city-dwellers and perhaps a few out-of-towners who know her as I do, I'll share with you now these images. Thank you for your time and have a good day, Mark.