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.comSome of my own stuff coming soon...