The alarm went off several times, but it was still raining – enough to prompt my staying in bed. Dreary days are not my favorite for shooting photos, or even getting up, for that matter, but I made my ritual stovetop espresso in the machine my friend sent me from Rome, contemplating consciousness, and sat on the couch to complete my morning writing before running off to shoot a portrait of a chiropractor.
Forecasting an 8-hour day of rain, weather.com had prompted me to attempt to reschedule this shoot, but my subject was not deterred. The sun peeked out as my train crossed the Williamsburg Bridge and hope glimmered, as I tried to coerce my iPhone to send some emails before the J train re-immersed itself into the underground, to no avail. The office of my back-cracking subject was in a quintessentially old New York building over-looking Madison Square Park. When I arrived, we covered his needs for his website, and then got inspired to photograph him peering out the 10th-story window at the “building-valleys,” my nickname for the way the skyscrapers press against each other in perspective, bestowed to them upon my arrival in New York eight years ago. (Eight years ago! Thank goodness for this Audrey Hepburn haircut that makes me look 22, or this thought might make me feel my age.) The suddenly confident appearance of sunshine and blue sky led our shoot to the park, where we spotted an art installation of bronze figures atop the surrounding buildings – creating unease in unsuspecting discoverers. Spotting one figure by himself, looking ready to jump, was alarming, but seeing more turned us into scavenger-hunters, wondering where else these precarious bodies might be situated (it turns out, even on the Flat Iron Building!). To close the shoot, I insisted on one last portrait by the fountain, which has always reminded me of Paris, even long before I’d been to Paris. Heading home, I entered the Farmer’s Market at Union Square, where lavender farmers had a stand of sachets that sent their fragrance wafting for at least a city block. I bought a sachet for four dollars, bagging a small sense of end-of-day comfort, and boarded the train. ________________________About the author: Sarah is an artist. She has honed a unique style and is inspired by classic imagery and improvisational jazz music. She strives to inspire people with photographic evidence of their lives working beautifully. Photo by Sarah Sloboda