After returning a lens rental to Calumet on West 22nd Street, I met Ramona for a late lunch at Gobo on 6th Avenue. Their food rocks. Best seitan I’ve tasted. I took Ramona to Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo afterwards. The clouds fizzled into clear blue and a big golden sun began falling behind the bridge by six o’clock. After making a few images, we got the subway back to Manhattan but not before I put us on the wrong train going further into Brooklyn and Ramona and me each insisted on a better route to take to South Ferry. I felt for my phone in my pants pocket. Uh-oh. Not surprised. While I was making my first portraits of Ramona under the Manhattan Bridge, I felt the phone slip out of my pocket as I laid on the grass. “Don’t forget about the phone,“ I whispered to myself. I forgot about the phone.
I ran back to the park; the phone was gone. Three guys were eating pizza near the spot where I lost it. I asked one of them to call my phone. The woman who answered was still in the park walking her dog. I lucked out and got it back. And it gave me a chance to wait for dusk and try a few shots of the bridge.
On Friday, August 22, former Nightline executive producer Leroy Sievers, 53, died from complications of metastasized colon cancer. I followed his blog almost every day for two years like thousands of others. His wife Laurie has continued it in his honor. One of the common sentiments readers made after hearing about his death was that they cried for a man they had never met, someone who like a gentle giant touched their daily lives with grace and humility. In a tribute to Sievers broadcast online, his oncologist had the courage to expose the human side of being a doctor and honor his patient’s inspiring character.
Two months earlier, on June 25, Randy Pausch passed away of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47. Randy touched many with his now-famous speech, The Last Lecture.
Two giants who poured their hearts out with good intention and deepened the dialog of cancer, are gone.
The third and final showing of the Human Condition exhibition landed in suite 212 at the Farmani Gallery in Dumbo. Anne Cameron Lagerberg and Elizabeth Barragan organized a great show. Several photographers whose pieces were included attended the event. Andrew Glickman makes incredible documentary images of Washington, DC commuter train life. I also met James D’Addio, an architectural photographer from Westchester. Dumbo is looking great these days.
A good crowd turned out for the opening of “The Human Condition” at the Farmani Gallery.
Documentary photographer Andrew Glickman flew up from D.C. with his family.
Architectural photographer James D’Addio traveled in from Hastings-on-the Hudson to check out the show.
Next door at Rebar on Front street, a Latin jazz band played late into the night.