I have a habit, some would say a bad habit of always looking out the side window of the car while driving.   I’m always looking for something to put my camera in front of.   Such was the case one time driving back over the Manhattan Bridge into Brooklyn, I noticed outside of the passenger’s window these rooftops just covered in graffiti.  In an instant, I knew there was a photograph there for me and one day I would return.  That return came a few years later when over a 4th of July holiday I returned to the New York area with good friend and fellow large format photographer Gene LaFord for a day of photography.

     I know the Brooklyn side of DUMBO fairly well and decided the safest place to leave the car was on the street near the access stairs to walk across the Manhattan Bridge.  The bridge opened to traffic on December 31, 1909, and is 6855 ft long, so my walk was going to be about 1 mile each way with about 40 lbs. of equipment and the 7×17″ Phillips camera.  I’m a big fan of Berenice Abbott’s work, especially her Changing New York series on the transformations the city had experienced during the 1930’s.  I knew she had made several photographs while actually on the Manhattan bridge pointing her camera skyward.   I have said in the past I draw great satisfaction from actually seeing the spots that photographers I draw inspiration from have thought worthy to make their own photographs.   My interest is not so much to replicate another’s image, rather see in real time and space what drew them to make their image.  So, there were at least two stops I made on the way across the Manhattan where I knew Abbott had set up her camera, and that made the long walk much more interesting.

     Once I finally arrived at the area where the rooftops were I was faced with exactly how to set up the camera to “see” the composition I wanted.   A major obstacle would be the metal strapping of the safety guard rail as seen in the below cell phone snap.   The large 7×17″ camera typically requires large lens which can actually “cover” such a large negative, meaning to project a large enough angle of coverage for a 17″ wide negative.   Negatives of this size are typically “contact” printed, in other words, the negative is in direct contact with the positive process of the photographer’s choice, there is no enlargement and any cropping defeats the purpose of using such large film.  Of the 3 lenses I brought with me, only one had nearly a small enough front lens element where I might be able to position the camera with an unobstructed view to the rooftops.  Positioning the heavy camera and adjusting each tripod leg so that the lens was looking thru the metal strapping took close to a half hour even with the help of my friend Gene. It was a sweltering July afternoon with people constantly walking by on the same footbridge where the camera was positioned, I was fortunate that my 12″ Goerz Dagor (300mm) lens offered the smaller front lens element as well as a pleasing composition of shapes and tonalities.  The glistening white shirts on the clothesline were as bright a white as I can remember and I certainly had to control them in the development process to preserve some detail and tonality.

     During all the time I was setting up the camera I knew there were trains running back and forth from Brooklyn to Manhattan.  Actually, there are 3 separate train tracks which share the superstructure of the Manhattan Bridge.   Unfortunately for me, when these trains would go by you could actually feel the suspension bridge vibrate due to the power and weight of the trains.   I was now faced with trying to figure out the timing of the trains as they were quite frequent even on a mid-afternoon holiday schedule.   Fortunately, in bright sunlight the exposure would be fairly short, fairly short for this setup was likely in the 3-second range, so there was still a concern for exposing the film when there were trains approaching my location.  This is the backstory of the “NYC Rooftops”.  

     This image along with 12 others make up my New York City portfolio that currently is on exhibit through November 23, 2018, at the Camera Commons gallery in Dover, New Hampshire as linked here:  Camera Commons  Good friends Peter Bosco and John Layton join me in presenting 44 large format images, each generated from large film.  I’ve released this Blog a few days early as there is a great opportunity for any photographer to attend a panel discussion of Large Format photography & Film moderated by David Speltz, owner of the Camera Commons gallery and an accomplished large format photographer himself.  Email me or Camera Commons directly if you have interest in attending the panel discussion on Sunday, September 30 beginning at 2 pm.   The Exhibition runs through November 23, 2019.