Tim Schreier on photographing people as they interact with art.

“I am simply a ‘picture taker.’ I would not call myself a photographer because that indicates some form of formal training, study or professional capacity. I kind of think of myself as a painter with a severe attention deficit, meaning I love light and admire photographers who are able to take advantage of natural lighting in it’s purest form. One of my favorite things to do is to visit galleries or museums and watch people as they interact with art.”
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Matt Logan, Michael Natale and Tim Schreier, community contributors to The Local East Village, share their images of Friday’s ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Michael Natale on using panoramic photography, or panos, to document an East Village in transition.

“I’ve taken it upon myself to document my neighborhood in the GammaBlog. Change around here sneaks up on you. Getting it on camera before it is gone is good, I think. The panorama format is ideal for this.”
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Rachel Citron on photographing quirky New York.

“This, in a nutshell, is my New York. Quirky, unexpected, crowded…The image was taken during one of my many walks through Central Park last spring.”
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Shawn Hoke

Earlier this week, as part of our recurring “Street Scenes” series of neighborhood photographs, we brought you Shawn Hoke’s images of a green Cadillac – rusted, pock-marked and yet still jealously clinging to its former grandeur – parked on a rainswept sidestreet.

Today, a reader, Bill Poznanski, stepped forward to say that he is the owner of the car in question and described the vehicle’s fascinating history.

“My (distressed) pistachio green 1978 Cadillac Sedan Deville has been driven 400,000 miles (by my estimate as the odometer stopped working about 200,000 miles ago)… which is almost to the moon and back…Kind of appropriate since parts of this neighborhood still looked like a lunar landscape when I bought the car nearly 20 years ago.

It’s been stolen and recovered three times. Maximum capacity: I once gave 12 drag queens from Lucky Cheng’s a lift uptown. Now some nights there are as many rats keeping warm next to the engine. Most curious observation: One year
a mystery woman took one photo of my ‘disco- mobile’ for 365 days. (Was this an art project for some swank gallery?)

Cab drivers fear it. An older woman on my street loathes it. Young professional newcomers to the neighborhood seem mystified by it.”

In a follow-up e-mail with The Local, Mr. Poznanski, the artistic director of The Imprint – a 30-year-old arts colllective based in the neighborhood, said that although he still drives the car, it is in extreme disrepair.

“it needs brakes and an exhaust system,” he wrote. “If there’s any Cadillac enthusiast that would like to donate to the ‘Save the disco-mobile fund’ that would be great. Otherwise, I might have to junk it soon.”