“Working” a Building, NYC

When the building is suitable and the light is right, I’ll spend some time “working the scene” just as I would a Colorado mountain peak or a serpentine slickrock canyon in the Utah outback.

Here are five examples of different visual approaches to one particular edifice in my attempt to drill down to its Orwellian core. Which image works the best?

Even though I am claiming these structures have a dehumanizing element to them (or perhaps, contrarily, a very undeserved, ego-inflating, “super-humanizing” element?), they are still darkly beautiful and the details of the construction process are mind-ballooning.

First, a tight crop emphasizing the dark recesses of the canyons. A granite wall not unlike something in Yosemite Valley…but not. Of course, not.

Building, #75, NYC, 2015

Think of the monolith in 2001, A Space Odyssey. In this case, which way is the energy flowing? Into the genesis cloud on the left, or from the cloud into the obelisk? How would the direction of energy flow be important to the meaning of this giant obelisk?

Building, #76. NYC, 2015

A wider view of the subject. I am amazed that the windows can actually be opened, even these few inches–and that the ant-like compartmented human beans inside the many offices are actually permitted to open them. Beware outside influences that might enter! Note also the alien energy ball of reflected sunlight trolling the building seams.

Building, #77. NYC, 2015

A close-up of three such windows open to the outside currents. Non-conformists in this world of herds and conformity? Why is one of the windows shining more brilliantly than the other two? Is it a signal?

Building, #78. NYC, 2015

Lastly, a vertical trial, splitting the frame exactly in half quite deliberately as if it were a mountain reflection standing on end…yin and yang…steel and sky…rock and air…inorganic and organic…temporary and permanent…

Building, #79. NYC, 2015