154. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Crown Heights, Brooklyn. “During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year…” Okay, so Edgar Allen Poe lived in the Bronx not Brooklyn. This reminds me of the Ashcan School, an American movement of painters whose subdued palette reflects the industrial Northeast: “Some members of this new generation were interested in creating a new type of art that reflected life in the growing cities across America. In sharp contrast to the conventional and rather genteel American Impressionism that represented the most popular American art of the period, these American Realists set about capturing the spontaneous moments of urban life.” Take a look at them, they capture the light and mood perfectly.

152. NEW YORK ON FOOT. The Bronx. Niether digital nor analog could save the tonal range of this photo because it wasn’t there in the first place, but when raw horsepower is needed analog leaves fewer contaminants behind. The relatively empty spaces and open sky of the Bronx can leave one feeling wistful on a lazy summer evening.

150. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Turtle Bay, Manhattan. It seems that every 19th Century European painter took a shot at the “Paris street, rain at dusk” picture. There is something archetypal about turning up one’s collar against the rain while looking in envy at warm interiors, and the orange glow of tungsten light is the perfect foil for the cold blue of a rainy winter sky. Its a scene that I never tire of. The blur caused by camera shake and a bad lens makes the image more painterly.

149. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Taken at the northern tip of Brooklyn, looking across Newtown Creek into Queens. The image has that unique sunlight effect of some coastal cities–I have seen it in New York, Vancouver, Galway, Los Angeles and various places around the Mediterranean, but never in the tropics. Maybe its a Northern Hemisphere thing.

145. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Central Park. 843 acres of parkland in the midst of some of the most condensed, populated, competitive, expensive real estate on the planet? The fact that Central Park even exists is hard to believe. Forget the Statue of Liberty, Central Park is my vote as the symbol of the American Dream. “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” –Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural.

140. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Midtown East. UN protests and heavy auto traffic are common in East Midtown. Recently published figures: 731,000 automobiles enter Manhattan below 60th street daily; it takes 40 minutes to drive the (two mile) width of Manhattan at rush hour; the average auto travels at 8.2 MPH in Manhattan (only 2.5 times average human walking speed); and it costs three to five thousand dollars per annum to rent parking in Midtown. A native Manhattanite I know calls it the Midwestern Diet: people move here, ditch the ride, and the walking loses them ten pounds in the first month.

138. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Northwestern Williamsburg just in from the East River has some of New York’s more interesting post-industrial scenery. This shot is another example of why just putting on a good pair of shoes and getting constructively lost is the best way to discover New York’s quirky splendor. The photo is nothing without the lifts in the background, although the bright sky pushed the camera sensor far beyond its capabilities. They were worth it.

137. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Willamsburg Bridge. Looking southwest, Brooklyn is to the left, lower Manhattan to the right. The Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges in the middle background. A walking visit to New York should not miss a trip or two across the Billy Bridge, especially at dusk. One of the more interesting views in the city.

133. NEW YORK ON FOOT. East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. East Williamsburg, a so-called “lonely industrial wasteland”, is one of the purest examples of New York’s grimy beauty. I don’t think they do walking tours here.

128. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Williamsburg Bridge. My ambition as an immigrant to New York was to walk all the bridges, a feat frustrated by the Verrazano having no pedestrian walkways and losing patience with the 103rd Street Footbridge (a “vertical lift” bridge raised for ships on the East River, and one of the quirkiest structures in the Western Hemisphere). The Williamsburg Bridge is as much a sculpture as a conveyance, and gets my vote even if the Brooklyn Bridge is more famous. Why are we incapable of such magnificent public infrastructure nowadays?

127. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Sunnyside, Queens. Aside from an inexplicable affection for this gritty district of Queens, the image proves the serial fact that the most dramatic views of Manhattan do not happen in Manhattan.

126. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Gramercy, Manhattan. To counter a brutal late summer heat and humidity wave in New York, I present a cool winter sky. Manhattan has an unbelievable number of micro neighborhoods with distinct styles, histories and characters–every four blocks it seems. The dense shadows and short days of winter can make for sun starvation in these canyons. Streets in Manhattan have a shady and a sunny side–you walk the warmer sun side in winter and the shade in summer.

124. NEW YORK ON FOOT. The Bronx. Change a few details in this photo and it could be the main street of any small town in North America–the Bronx probably is the biggest small town in the world. The other thing about the Bronx, like the other “outer boroughs”, is that the lowrise buildings showcase the sky for a sky-hungry midtown Manhattanite–in this case that unmistakably lazy, late August light. The photo is flawed due to a tardy shutter and overexposure, but the color rhymes make up for it.

109. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Midtown East, Manhattan. There are several places around midtown that give a perspective on the Chrysler Building, but this one on East 46th is the most dramatic.

108. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Upper East Side. Neoclassical motifs and foliage on a spring day in Manhattan.

107. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Upper East Side. An homage to Edward Hopper and the two remaining firms in the city that build wooden water towers. Calling them “NYC’s misunderstood icons”, a local news report claims that “the average wood tank holds 10,000 gallons of water and costs around $30,000. A steel tank would cost up to $120,000.”

#106. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Staten Island. In a city that has a look all its own, it is always surprising to find views of it that could be anywhere in North America.

105. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I am not sure how, but this image distills something of the spirit of Williamsburg. Maybe its the swagger, the barbecue and the bridge . . .

104. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Looking northwest down Washington Avenue from Eastern Parkway (the Manhattan skyline in the background). The photo gives a clue as to why its called Crown Heights.

103. NEW YORK ON FOOT. Randall’s Island. Looking at the southern tip of the Bronx. You can’t see it, but in between flows a narrow straight called Bronx Kill.