I love the High Line. I love Joel Sternfeld's photographs of it a decade ago and I love the park as it exists today. This was my second visit and after the first, I wasn't fully ready to write about it. It was the wrong time of day - my photographs were too dark and I spent more time experiencing it rather than documenting it (always a good thing). This year, it was windy and sunny and I managed to stroll the entire length (a feat considering all the walking through Chelsea galleries hours earlier).
I am drawn to images that show the extreme passing of time like Mark Klett's Third View. It is essential to include some of my favorite Joel Sternfeld photographs because I was thinking about them this last trip. His images below are from the monograph Walking the Line.
Joel Sternfeld, Looking West on 30th Street on a September Evening, 2000
Joel Sternfeld, Looking South on an Afternoon in June, 2000
Joel Sterfeld, Track Crossing Snow, January 2001
Joel Sternfeld, Ken Robson's Christmas Tree, January, 2001
Joel Sternfeld, Grape Hyacinth, April, 2000
Joel Sternfeld, View Towards the Empire State Building, November, 2000
Joel Sternfeld, Looking East on 30th Street on a Morning in May, 2000
Now for some far less sublime photographs taken on the G-12 and I-Phone from March 2012.
Charles Mary Kubricht, Alive-nesses: Proposal for Adaptation, 2011 = a little Razzle Dazzle in the form of painted storage containers.
One end of the High Line on West 30th Street near the soon to be developed Rail Yard.
Two "viewing stations" where one learns how mesmerizing watching traffic can be.
Where nature meets architecture in neatly constructed geometric units.
The brown I remember in Sternfeld's photographs though the path and the amount of occupants changed significantly.
The other end of the High Line on Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District.
I saw more high-end cameras and European tourists than either other location this trip. Can't wait to go back again preferably when it is green.
