Post tagged with

MICHAEL SEAN EDWARDS

Viewfinder | The Paradox of Identity

1st Avenue near 12th St.1st Avenue near 12th Street

These photographs are excerpted from a series called “The Paradox of Identity.” It is a work in progress and it has been for a while (since 1985). It is first referred to in my journal as “The Pigeon Project” and later on became “If You Can Name It…”

I am naturally suspicious of grand names for things, so I need to explain: We don’t have a big sky in New York City, so the intersection of sky and city is a big part of looking up around here. I have for some reason been drawn again and again to the sight of a patch of sky etched out by the buildings enclosing it, and the fleeting glimpse of a pigeon entering or leaving. I always feel a brief pang of want when I see it: “If I could only fly like a bird; if I could only be free…of myself.” Read more…


Viewfinder | ‘It Really Was A Village’

Michael Sean Edwards on East Village life in the 1970’s and 80’s.

2nd Ave. and 6th Street, 1980

“One of the things that most struck me about the East Village when I moved here in 1978, and what made me love it so much is that it really was a village; an enclave in NYC that felt like old Europe rubbing up against the new wave.”
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