BROOKLYN NEW YORK – Today is Maria’s birthday. We had a small dinner at Frankies Spuntino in Brooklyn (that’s not a typo – it’s owned by two guys named Frankie). Shot with my Leica M9 and 50 mm Summilux lens.
On this day one year ago: Citicorp.
Category: Events and holidays
NEW YORK, NEW YORK РA couple of things happened today. We spent a while with Alexander and Laura, his fianc̩, preparing for their wedding, which is next weekend. Here they are, with Maria, taken with my Leica M9 and a 50mm Summilux lens:
My firm had an alumni reception at Morgan Library. We had free run of the collection, assisted by docents. It had been a while since I had been there – the overwhelming impression is admiration for J.P. Morgan. Today’s billionaires build superboats, buy 747s, and collect 100,000 square foot houses. Morgan assembled a treasure trove of illustrated manuscripts, drawing and rare books. What a difference.
On this day one year ago: St. John the Divine.
WESTHAMPTON, NEW YORK – I carried my Leica M9 with a 50 mm Summilux lens around all day. I’m often surprised and delighted by the images that this combination produces – I think that if I were to limit myself to a single camera and lens this would be it.
On this day one year ago: a not so magic moment.
CAPRI ITALY – We spent another day at da Luigi at the Faraglioni. This is from later in the day shopping.
We spent some time Saturday and Sunday at Le Conversazioni, Antonio Monda’s literary festival in Capri. We had run into Dona Tart on the aliscafo to the island, so we caught Antonio’s interview of Dona this evening. Leica M9 with a 90mm lens.
On this day last year: Clamps.
CAPRI ITALY – Still no bag from Air France. They say it should arrive late afternoon. Anti-French images crowd out every other thought. “Cheese eating surrender monkey” doesn’t begin to capture it. The wedding is at 6:00 PM. This is no joke. I’m in Italy. These people take their wedding seriously. Everyone is beautiful and well dressed. I have a theory that on Capri the Carabinieri round up all of the ugly people every night, take them out to sea and drown them. You actually can’t show up at a fancy Italian wedding in jeans and a three-day polo shirt.
We made the most of the day. I bought a swimsuit and spent the day with my family on the “beach”. Beach is in quotes because there are no actual sandy beaches on Capri. People pay mega-euros to lay out on the rocks near the water. I’ll cover that beat in tomorrow’s post. Anyway at exactly 6:00 PM my bag arrived at my hotel room door. I dressed and was out the door in 15 minutes and got to the church by 6:30. This was the full mass version of a wedding so things were just starting to move along. I’m posting several images from the wedding, not necessarily in narrative order, all taken with my Leica.
The enthralled crowd at the Piazzetta.
All kidding aside the bride, Emanuela Volpe (Maria’s niece and perhaps Francesca’s closest friend), was radiant.
Some ambience.
Francesca and her great aunt.
On this day one year ago: Quito.
NEW YORK NEW YORK – Our friends Varya Gornostaeva and her husband, Sergei Parkhomenko, were in town from Moscow so we had a small dinner party for them in our kitchen. Varya has terrific English and Sergei very good French (as does Maria) so we had enough languages in common to communicate well. This is Sergei captured with my Leica M9 – this is less annoying than it looks because it was at the end of the meal and still mid-afternoon in Moscow.
On this day one year ago: A passport photo for Maria. This very clearly demonstrates that I really could make a living at photography, doing passport photos.
Categories
Wednesday June 15, 2011
NEW YORK NEW YORK – We went to the opening of Honor, Giovanna Randall’s new boutique located on Gansevoort Street in the meatpacking district. The men were noticeably better dressed than the usual grungy New York crowd. I asked Maria if this is a new (and welcome) trend – she responded “No, they’re just fashonistas.” Taken with my suitably retro Leica M9 and a vintage 50mm Dual Range Summicron. We walked on the High Line afterwords where I captured another image.
On this day one year ago: 289 Devonshire.
