New York Minutes

Photos: S.Banos

Both of these pictures were taken in NYC this year during the heat of summer. The one taken directly above on the outskirts of Chinatown was a fleetingly blessed nanosecond of solitude in an area that does not experience such isolation in real time, not in this era. I was thinking of that this week when Sandy has stilled much of my home town, and many of its homes (like my folks) and streets are without power.

Rare as it was, stillness was once a regular part of this city's natural rhythm- as in its weekends and holidays, when one could almost claim ownership to certain parts of Gotham. Nowadays, with its ever maddening throngs of non stop consumers, it literally takes a disaster, be it man made or natural, to slow the city down to a pace that actually allows... reflection.