A Day at MoMA

On Friday, I managed to get up to MoMA for an hour to see the huge Abstract Expressionist exhibition, but to my dismay, an hour was nowhere near enough time.

So today I spent several hours wandering the nonsensical arrangement of rooms in New York City's Museum of Modern Art, standing in front of and staring at works by Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Lee Krasner, Philip Guston and Aaron Siskind (just to name a few).

This may have been the first time I was alone in a museum since I was traveling abroad in 2008 - 2009, and it's fair to say that I completely forgot how wonderful it is to explore a museum on your own.

Museum dates with other people are great--it changes the experience entirely to have someone with whom you can talk about the artwork, with whom to commiserate--but to be alone in a museum is a non-daunting way to be alone with your own thoughts. You can take your time, wander at your own pace, skip things you don't want to see and spend all the time you want sitting in front of something that captivates you and just won't let you go.

I haven't quite decided whether I think a trip to a museum should be a personal experience, but I think that every once in awhile--at the very least--a person should take a trip to a museum by himself for the quasi-spiritual experience it allows. It feels great to get lost in your thoughts and lost in the artwork surrounding you.

There is something which I find increasingly troublesome, however. I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a photograph of a work of art if it's something that moves you, but there were people in the museum who would only look at a work of art through the viewfinder of their camera, snap a picture of it and then walk away to the next piece. The great thing about the Internet is that if you would like to look at a picture of a work of art, all you have to do is Google it. If you're not going to take in a work of art in as you're standing in front of it--because, believe it or not, it is a much different experience than just seeing a picture on a computer screen--I can't say I understand the point of coming to the museum in the first place.

That said, I loved the Abstract Expressionist exhibit, and plan on going to see it at least one more time before it closes--probably more than that.

Some recent work

Some recent photographs -- two inspired by Burckhardt, one inspired by a gorgeous sunset.

West Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY, 2010

Greenpoint Avenue, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY, 2010

Milton Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY, 2010

Back on the Rail(s)

My senior year of high school, I worked at a local publication called the Brooklyn Rail (www.brooklynrail.org). I was lucky enough to return to Brooklyn after graduation and find that the Rail still had a place for me.

When I mentioned I had developed an interest in photography, the publisher of the Rail dug up a book of Rudy Burckhardt's work from his immense library. In all honesty, it had been a while since I had taken any photographs, but looking through Burckhardt's book has encouraged me to start looking at the city differently and to be sure to always have a camera on me.

It's the simplicity of his work that I find most compelling: the textures of the sidewalk or reflections in puddles that are so easy to miss during the daily bustle. It's photos like Burckhardt's that remind me to slow down once in awhile and to really look at the city in which I've been engulfed, especially as it changes so rapidly.

Rudy Burckhardt, "Pair of Siamese Standpipes, New York City", 1939, from www.uesjournal.com

Some of my own stuff coming soon...

Back up and running

I've decided to start updating my blog again, but it's going to be a little different. I want to share with people the things that inspire me that I come across from day to day, starting today.

I read Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers" for my Craft of the Short Story class today. It's incredible. You need to read the whole thing, I think, to understand just why it's so amazing. Here's a link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6547255/Ernest-Hemingway-The-Killers

For me, it's the last line (preceded, of course, by the rest of the story) that makes it so powerful. Take a look if you have the time!

ZMG

It's been awhile...

It's been a long time since my last post, and that is because I have been traveling throughout different countries in Europe.

Tomorrow will begin a series of entries about my travels - one city per day, starting with Milan. Stay tuned.