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Statement from the Artist:

My parents gave me a Brownie camera in 1961, when I was twelve years old. Sixty-five years later, my fascination with photography still continues. The black-and-white bar / flag image, created in the early 1970s, began with the purchase of a roll of fine-grain film. At the time, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank were my inspirations. The photograph was taken beneath the West Side Highway at 21st Street and 11th Avenue in New York City. The partial silhouette of one of the highway’s columns can be seen on the left. Although the location has changed radically since I made the photograph, the steeple of the General Theological Seminary on 21st Street, just off 10th Avenue, still remains in the distance.

The process itself belonged to another era. After exposing the film, I brought the roll to a lab for processing and printing. The lacquered frame with plexiglass was constructed by a neighborhood framer. Recently, however, I became restless with classical photography and decided to embrace color, texture, and frameless presentation.

The color image of the Empire State Building is digital, taken with my cell phone from the window of a New York City hotel on 25th Street in 2024. The image file was transferred to my computer, where it was cropped and texturized. Van Gogh’s use of color and texture served as a conscious inspiration. A six-point black pinstripe border strengthens the composition, while the white matte — itself part of the image file — isolates the image from the wall color (Josef Albers). The digital file is sent to Germany, where it is printed on paper and pressure-mounted to an aluminum panel. Presented without frame or glass, the image floats approximately one inch from the wall. Matte printing, rather than glossy printing, eliminates distracting reflections.

And voilà — sixty-five years later, my latest photographic vision is realized through computers, lasers, satellites, and state-of-the-art German technology. I now feel energized to experiment more with color and texture. Over the years, my photographic narrative of New York City has remained remarkably consistent, but my use of photographic technology has advanced by light-years.