New York City Noir

Returned from Santa Fe

Santa Fe is a rich people's town (I entered one store off the Plaza and asked the price of a particularly beautiful belt on display with several others.  "Oh, the ones on that rack begin at $600," the saleswoman said).  It's a lot like the Hamptons on Long Island, but with adobe archictecture and no beach.  Santa Fe'ans are genuinely friendly, though, and try to be helpful.  During the time I spent walking the town's streets, I neve witnessed any rudeness.

All around the Plaza, there are plenty of good art and photography galleries.  Edward Curtis and Georgia O'Keefe are exhibited side by side.  I saw a really good exhibit of Eddie Adams' photos while browsing a few last galleries before leaving on the shuttle van back to Albuquerque.  There was the famous shot of the South Vietnamese general shooting a suspected spy in the head at point blank range. 

There are also a lot of old hippies, some of them homeless, hanging around the Plaza.  One wore a fake wolf' headress over his head  Another carved spiral shaped canes he claimed he was allowed to sell but never display.   

There really wasn't anything I was going to find to photograph on a first visit to Santa Fe that hadn't been seen a thousand times before.  I shot Tri-X , for once without a yellow contrast filter, on a Nikon N90.  I was just shooting a record of what interested me most.  Once I've printed the negatives, then toned and scanned the prints themselves, I'll update this post

I've set up a new travel page on my website to show some of the b&w photos I shot on last month's trip to Tokyo.  All the photos are scans of sepia-toned silver bromide prints made in a wet darkroom.  Hopy you enjoy looking at them.

The coolest club in the world. Really, it is.

No question about it, whether you're a fan of hip hop or not, if you want to go to a club that rocks from midnight till 8:00 a.m. and has hippest sound, the coolest decor and best people, then the best place in the world is Oath in Tokyo.  It's not like the sleazy NYC clubs where everyone has an attitude and where people only go to coke up and get laid.  Instead, everyone at at this tiny place is totally into the music and good friends with one another.  Going there gave me a glimpse of the real Japan and its people.  I came away with a lot more insight into Japanese culture than I could have gotten from traveling to a dozen tourist spots.

Other advantages include: no cover/no minimum and incredibly inexpensive drinks (only $5 US).  And the bartender is Chiemi, a good friend and great model who has got to be the most beautiful woman ever to stand in back of a bar. 

I strongly recommend Oath.  Check its website for more information.

 

Travel Plans

I will be traveling to Tokyo from April 11 through April 18 and am hoping to do a shoot with Chiemi while I am there.  From May 18 through May 22 I will be traveling to Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos in New Mexico.