Friday, December 23, 2011

Year in New York Pictures













NEW YORK has always been too big an idea to be rendered successfully in a single image: simultaneously cruel and generous, dazzling and demeaning, unbearably vibrant and — as it waits to see what path a tropical storm will take — suspensefully calm. But one thing that almost every New York moment has in common is a surprise of some sort. Some surprises are dreadful. An 8-year-old boy named Leiby Kletzky was supposed to walk the seven blocks back to his home in Borough Park one day in July, but he never made it. Other surprises were joyful. Same-sex couples did not go into the year thinking they would have the right to marry before the summer was out. Felix Ramirez and Peter Vargas of the Bronx had already been together 24 years by the time they were wed at City Hall. (Or at least near it.)
As fall began, the name Zuccotti Park was familiar to only a small number of people downtown. By winter, it had become known around the world, as the Occupy Wall Street movement was emulated in one city after the next. And then there was that self-assured congressman who made no disguise of his mayoral ambitions or — it turned out — of other ambitions, either.
Any one of these images describe the New York of 2011. Taken together as a crazy quilt, they describe a New York that is simply timeless.
DESCRIPTIONEarl Wilson/The New York TimesThe Lafayette Avenue subway station in Brooklyn on a freezing day in January.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Occupy Wall Street – A Collection


Photo by jamie nyc.

Photo by david_shankbone.

By Banksy. Photo by duncan.


Photo by Tim Schreier. From Newser: “So far, 15 of my fellow Marine buddies are meeting me there, also in uniform. I didn’t fight for Wall Street. I fought for America.”

Photo by stanleyrogouski.

Photo by jamie nyc.

Photo by sunsetparker.

Photo by magneticart.

Photo by magneticart.

Photo by R. Flynn.

Photo by ljensenconsumer.

Photo by ljensenconsumer.

Photo by thelushside.

Photo by Elene De’ Mymm.

Photo by jamie nyc.

Photo by waywuwei.

Photo by edenpictures.

Photo by sunsetparker.

Photo by erika eve.

Photo by stanleyrogouski.

Photo by sam mullins.

Photo by hunter.gatherer.


Photo by vincemie.

Photo by blulaces.

Photo by david_shankbone.

Photo by occupywallstreet.

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From Alternet.org:
“To be fair, the scene in Liberty Plaza seems messy and chaotic. But it’s also a laboratory of possibility, and that’s the beauty of democracy. As opposed to our monoculture world, where political life is flipping a lever every four years, social life is being a consumer and economic life is being a timid cog, the Wall Street occupation is creating a polyculture of ideas, expression and art.
Yet while many people support the occupation, they hesitate to fully join in and are quick to offer criticism. It’s clear that the biggest obstacles to building a powerful movement are not the police or capital — it’s our own cynicism and despair.
Perhaps their views were colored by the New York Times article deriding protestors for wishing to “pantomime progressivism” and “Gunning for Wall Street with faulty aim.” Many of the criticisms boil down to “a lack of clear messaging.”
But what’s wrong with that? A fully formed movement is not going to spring from the ground. It has to be created. And who can say what exactly needs to be done? We are not talking about ousting a dictator; though some say we want to oust the dictatorship of capital.”
“Now, there are endless objections one can make. But if we focus on the possibilities, and shed our despair, our hesitancy and our cynicism, and collectively come to Wall Street with critical thinking, ideas and solidarity we can change the world.”
Via: 
http://www.streetartutopia.com/?p=4334