Dear, New York
Photography & Words by Swabreen Bakr
I think it was over a year since I had last visited NYC, I never really spent a lot of time in Manhattan when I went there since most of my friends live in the other boroughs, mainly Brooklyn. But this time around I stayed with my family on the Upper East Side on 2nd Ave and got to experience a different side of the city. After spending three days there I have a better understanding of why artists flock there, inspiration is everywhere! From the architecture, to the window displays, to the crowds of people, and yellow cabs zipping by like bees, it was an amazing experience.
At the Guggenheim museum I was really inspired by the portrait photography of Rineke Dijkstra. The way how she elevated her subjects from their humble surroundings and managed to capture subtle and honest expressions in their faces and eyes was really something.
People always say NYC is one of the greatest cities on earth, when you go there and take in everything it has to offer in terms of culture, fashion, architecture, food, entertainment, and so on, it is really incredible that you can find so much excellence on one tiny island.
Fifth Avenue was ripe with inspiration, all the high end retail stores put on amazing visual displays that chipped into or were layered over the existing architecture on the buildings they lived in. The Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama window display was amazing! Her signature dots made the building a stand out from miles away. The scale of things in the city always impresses me, Saks Fifth Avenue boasted of over 10,022 additional sq. feet for their shoes showroom! Each shoe that was in their window display was a work of art of its own. Diesel showcased their edginess by having their signature graphic logo chipped into the building itself, and gave it some pizzaz with a glitter effect. Every one is vying for attention so to see things rendered on such a grand scale was really awe inspiring.
