My photo-perch was on top of the green box on the corner lamp-post on the left
I've got an upcoming solo show titled Trading Places opening May 10th and running through June 30th at Modernism Gallery in San Francisco that will feature my large oil paintings. If you're in the area while it's up, please stop by and have a look at my work in the gallery's beautiful new ground-floor space at 724 Ellis street.
One painting in the exhibition is Canal & Broadway, shown above and completed in 2012. I was interested in getting a higher vantage point to photograph street scenes long before I developed my Sony-on-a-stick approach, especially where there was an oppportunity to see down into a subway entrance while keeping the sidewalk and street action above ground in view too. The northwest corner of Canal and Broadway in lower Manhattan had been on my radar for awhile, and I'd been casing it for the ideal time-of-day and season to get the the light just right while colorful crowds were present. I decided that noon on a busy weekday in early March around noon was prime time, and I waited for a sunny one. While looking for the right angle to get everything I wanted in the scene, I examined the red fire call-box next to the lamp-post on the corner, and realized I could "chimney" up between them to climb on top of the green signal control box you can see on the left in the photo above. It being New York, (almost) nobody paid any attention to the guy with a camera standing on the box, draped over the crosswalk signal and shooting photographs every which way...except for the proprietors of the souvenir shop on the corner.
The couple that operated the store at the time were a mixed bag, with the woman gesturing and yelling at me to get down, while her oversized male partner stood right behind her making the finger-twirl-in-the-ear crazy sign and pointing at her. By the next year, when I finally got everything lined up right, they had traded places with two more operators...you can see the male half of the pair with his arms folded in center of the photo, giving me the stink-eye. This time his female co-owner was thrilled to have her picture taken and kept posing for the camera, while he kept threatening to call the cops and have me busted. He made it into the painting anyway, with his back to me at the entrance to the subway.
Friends who are passing by and know the story text me photos of the corner that have become a history of commerce in this location. It's been constant change at this shop since I shot the photos and made the painting. Sometimes it's closed and boarded up, sometimes it's back in operation with yet another set of merchants from a different far-away place on the globe, but they always seem to be selling the same stuff.
My wonderful gallery representation: LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
And as always, you can also contact me directly by email: info@sethtane.com and follow my occasional photo posts on: Instagram