During a recent trip to NYC, I happened to be working with this view. The Freedom Tower. And then a storm came along, which meant a 10-minute work break to get a few shots. The clouds kept getting more and more dramatic, until my 10-minute break had become an hour. The mental respite was more than welcome…nothing stills my mind the way photography does.
This year marks the 15th time I’ve attended the US Open. It is, by far, my favorite sporting event. I couldn’t love it more. There were lots of characters, old and new, that made this year’s Labor Day weekend as thrilling as ever. Here are some of the matches I took in and images I managed to bring home.
Federer was pushed to Armstrong by the rain…
…and, before a stunned capacity crowd, he was pushed right out of the tournament in 3 sets by Tommy Robredo.
Speaking of Tommy, the ageless Tommy Haas is still going strong.
Sabine Lisicki made quick work of her 3rd round opponent.
Serena vs Sloane started off with some fireworks, but didn’t quite live up to the hype.
The crowd is always a part of the picture at Flushing.
Donald Young was run off the court pretty easily this year….
…but he DID team up with 17-year-old giantkiller Victoria Duval (who defeated #3 Sam Stosur in the first round of womens’ singles) for mixed doubles.
Janko Tipsarevic and David Ferrer are always exciting to watch on the Grandstand. This match took place at the same time as Federer was taking his beating, so I bounced back and forth to get these shots. I’ll definitely shoot this perspective more often in years to come. Love it.
Raquel Kops-Jones was sort of our mascot for this year. We saw her play doubles and mixed doubles almost every day. We saw her women’s team lose to the Williams sisters and her mixed team defeat Young and Duval. Basically, we kinda stalked her when we saw her on the draw sheet.
Johnny Mac!!! Rushing from the Nadal match on Ashe to call the Federer carnage on Armstrong.
I loved this stitched image of midtown New York so much I decided to remix it.
In moments of self-awareness, I can acknowledge that one of the reasons why I gravitated so strongly to photography is that I love to remember. In moments of self-honesty, however, I can also admit that not all of my remembering is good for me. I can’t remember (har har) what set this train of thought into motion last fall, but I have been thinking about this in the context of lots of things going on in my life since then. Lots of questions come up. When do I transition from fondly reminiscing about the past to mentally setting up house in it? When does trying to reference a lesson learned transition into reliving and wallowing in a negative experience? How often is history rewritten in my head? Does it all keep me from moving forward? And, of course…why? I made a list of what comes up for me when I think about the past. Ideas about myself, my childhood, my relationships. There are plenty of dark spaces in those thoughts. However, this series is meant to depict associations that are mostly joyful for me, although I have both positive and negative associations with them all. I’m hopeful that this exercise might provide a segue into examining the shadowy corners.
LOVE this series. LOVE.
love love love the mouthpiece. i have, to this day, never heard you play. but i love that you love to remember, as i do too. and i’ve asked myself similar questions. it’s hard for me to know where that line is between remembering and regressing, and i find that on any given day, the same memory might affect me completely differently. sometimes that memory is easy, just factual history, while other days it’s heavy with emotion. i think my emotional response to a memory, especially one that isn’t consistently light and fun, largely reflects what else is going on in my life, and the danger for me is when i let my current thoughts/situation influence my perception of the so-called reality of the memory. suddenly i fail to see all the shadows, and focus only on that tiny glint of sun that at the time didn’t offer any light, warmth, or life. but in my altered perception, i’ve glorified it.
without our memory, our lives lose meaning. so even though remembering can sometimes keep us in a rut, i’d rather wallow in a memory than have nothing in my memory at all. and one thing is certain – everything changes, so the wallowing simply cannot be interminable.
i think you’re very self-aware. and very vunderwool.
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