Well, it is obvious that I didn't shoot this photo today. This weekend there was a review of a new documentary on HBO about The Gates, and how the project was conceived, and what the artists had to go through for 26 years to finally get permission to use Central Park for the installation. At the same time, I was going through my digital photographs, organizing them at long last, and saw a folder of images of The Gates. Seeing the images again took me back. I spent a magical day walking all over Central Park, in and around and under them, and photographing until I dropped! What a sublime experience. I did go back again a few weeks with my sisters, and got to see them again. The experience was just stunning. They were larger than life, and strangers were turning and talking to one another because of the need to say something to one another about the experience. People were handing strangers cameras and asking to be photographed with The Gates as a background - I think I offered to do that at least half a dozen times. It was a magical time indeed. (I just went to check the facts, and am chagrinned to read The Gates were only up from Feb 12 to Feb 27, 2005. Just 15 days!)
3 comments:
i went on the very last day, practically the last hr too, at nite. just as my film ran out, i got to some small pond by one of the main streets and it started snowing, w/a hotel lit up in the background, a little bit reflected in the pond. i was so disappointed about no film.
I was in a similar situation years ago. What happens is that the image seems burned into our optic nerves, and we never forget the photograph we didn't get to take!
What are (was) the gates?
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