Remembering better days
A walk on the Brooklyn Bridge ona Saturday in the nineties.
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South Beach, Staten Island
I was actually testing a new 28mm Nikkor lens. I was returning from meeting a client in Staten Island so I took a detour and ended up on South Beach. It was a cold and sunny mid winter day and one can almost feel the desolation. The lens turned out to be pretty good and still works well but it has many scars that give it character of sorts. I love being a photographer.
The images I find
This roll was misplaced and it surfaced miraculously. It was Columbus day of 1980 and Pavarotti was the grand Marshall. President Carter also marched marched up Fifth Avenue along with many of my clients such as Geraldine Ferraro, Mario Cuomo, Comptroller Goldin, Congressman Biaggi and others. It was fun riding on the main media truck but very challenging because I to fight every inch of the way to the front so I could get my shots. At the time I was shooting for an Italian paper and it was an unforgettable experience.
Fujichrome 120
In the nineties Fuji assau8lted the film market with excellent products especially on color films. First came Fujcolor negative film and then a series of slide films. These images were shot with a Mamyia 220 on Fuji RVP ISO 100. The colors were brilliant and saturated sort of like the original Kodachromes. These were film's las hurrahs as digital soon took over. Interestingly enough Fuji survived ads prospered while Kodak, the inventor of the CCD went under. Even more ironic is the fact that even on their fine digicams, Fuji uses the name Fujifilm. Go figure.
Doom and gloom?
These images are from Earth Day 1990 held on Sixth Avenue in front of Radio City in Manhattan. All the predictions stated that in ten years it would all be over. I remember back in 1070 that they were predicting the end in ten years. Nevertheless I'm glad that they always get it wrong. It was naturally a collection of counter culture types who as it always happens in such demonstration, ended up having a great time. What can I say; it was a fun event to cover. Of course this was before smart phones and instant messaging. I wonder what a similar event would look like with everyone looking at their phones.
