Photos &Steve Fisher 03 Jul 2011 07:32 am
Empire 4th
- I thought for July 4th, I’d forego any fireworks and put up some photos of pure Americana, at least my version of Americana. Steve Fisher has been photographing the Empire State Building forever. I’ve hesitated about putting up some of these beautiful photos over the years because I thought it might feel a bit repetitive to you. But this is one my favorite buildings (the Chrysler Building is my favorite), and it caught me off guard the other day. I was on 34th Street and a tourist asked me where the building was. We were about half a block away from it, so I just pointed. For some reason I got a twinge in my heart when I looked up at it. (As I said, I love that building.)
Immediately then and there I knew it was going to be the focus for today’s photo show. So, many thanks to Steve for digging out all these great photos.
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Tonight TCM is screening the original KING KONG at 8pm.
I guess their programmer was thinking along the same lines as me.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 7:53 am 1.steve fisher said …
Michael: Thanks for today’s post of some of my photos. The Empire has got to be one of the most photographed buildings ever, but there’s good reason for it – in every season, at every time of day, in every weather condition, from any angle, it presents the eye with a delight to behold. I obviously can’t take credit for that last image with Mr. Kong swatting at bi-planes. Enjoy a great 4th. Steve.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 10:56 am 2.Mark Mayerson said …
It ain’t the Empire State Building without the big monkey.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 12:29 pm 3.Bill Benzon said …
There’s some great shots there, some witty juxtapositions and some jaw-droppers. I’ve been shooting the building from NJ & have a bunch of shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stc4blues/sets/72157601586765957/
This may be my favorite:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stc4blues/1873787319/in/set-72157601586765957
Or this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stc4blues/4712545679/in/set-72157601586765957
Or this one in gold:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stc4blues/2159222535/in/set-72157601586765957
It’s just a stunning building.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 1:26 pm 4.Michael said …
It’s addictive. A beautiful model that likes to be photographed.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 2:02 pm 5.Eddie Fitzgerald said …
Nice pictures! That’s a far more beautiful building than either of the Twin Towers that were tragically knocked down on 9/11. If the truth be told, the Towers were bland, unimaginative and characterless, and had nothing to recommend them except their height.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 2:13 pm 6.Michael said …
Tissa David told me that the Twin Towers were the empty boxes that the Empire State Bldg and the Chrysler Bldg came in.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 3:02 pm 7.Ed said …
Please post ONLY drawings here, if possible the golden age of Disney, I don’t care about your stupid photos make another blog for those please, thanks
on 03 Jul 2011 at 3:04 pm 8.Michael said …
Well, Ed, I don’t care what you think of my postings. Photos will continue going up on Sundays. As a matter of fact, tomorrow, too. It’s my blog and I’ll post what I want to.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 3:07 pm 9.Heidi said …
Ed, I think the master artist, Michael Sporn, can post what he likes on his blog.
If you don’t like it, don’t come back.
Simple as that.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 4:29 pm 10.steve fisher said …
Ed: As reluctant as I am to add to your five minutes of fame, I am compelled to respond to the small mindedness of your comment. Michael Sporn puts together an astonishing blog devoted to his art. If you had read his post of June 30, then perhaps you would have learned something about the relationship of photography to painting. Photography, like animation, is a visual art. The reason I do not post my photographs on my own blog is that I share them exclusively with friends and family who have always expressed appreciation for them. That Michael chooses to share some of them with the rest of the world is a great compliment to me. They have been called many things, but never ‘stupid.’ But, hey, what can I say, some people just don’t get it. Steve.
on 03 Jul 2011 at 5:44 pm 11.The Gee said …
Wow.
First, any of the photo essays are nice and I actually look forward to them for various reasons. For instance, on the recent one featuring flowers, I was reminded that sometime soon I should do some color pencil drawings. I started a series around colorful flora last year but other projects got in the way. Suffice it to say, the essay was inspiring and I’ll seek out similar splashes of color around these parts and try to translate it into a picture or two. Just to make something colorful and not cartoony. Balance, don’tcha know….
This is an art and animation blog. A very good one at that.
And, like with most of those kinds of blogs, I assume–rightly or wrongly– that most of the audience are animation/artists, too. So, it does seem especially rude for anyone to demand that they be entertained certain ways. We’re not dancing monkeys.*
And, Ed, you haven’t had to pay a nickel for the stuff you wanted to see which probably takes Mr. Sporn some time to arrange, daily. So, it would be cool if you just apologized.
*(afterthought: I would visit a site at least once that featured dancing monkeys. And, without looking, at least one site probably exists. If one doesn’t, get on it, Ed. Make yourself entertaining.)
on 04 Jul 2011 at 4:04 am 12.Bill Benzon said …
About this dancing monkey site, would that be photographs and video clips of dancing monkeys, of sequences of classic animation, or both? Do we include dancing apes? I’m thinking that The Jungle Book has a nice sequence.
on 04 Jul 2011 at 8:11 am 13.tom hachtman said …
I love that building too. Thanks.
and BTW ED – GFY
on 05 Jul 2011 at 6:45 pm 14.The Gee said …
“About this dancing monkey site, would that be photographs and video clips of dancing monkeys, of sequences of classic animation, or both? Do we include dancing apes? I’m thinking that The Jungle Book has a nice sequence.”
Well, The Jungle Book would be a perfect example, but, if I have learned anything by watching that all-monkey western it is that those simians are born performers.
So, I was mainly thinking of video of monkeys.
That said, The Jungle Book would probably be the only respectable representation of artistic intent available. Anything else, might seem…I dunno…kind of random. Random can be good though.
As for dancing apes, chimps, orangoutangs and all the rest…anything that flails its arms while sorta shaking their hips, or jumping up and down, could be entertaining…until some new shiny object comes my way.
on 05 Jul 2011 at 8:30 pm 15.Michael said …
Walt once said that he felt animation should never do monkeys because he thought monkeys funny enough in real life.
Perhaps that’s why he didn’t like THE JUNGLE BOOK. He was quoted as saying, after a viewing of the film, “Maybe I’m getting too old for animation.”
on 05 Jul 2011 at 9:55 pm 16.The Gee said …
Hunh.
I didn’t know that.
But, yeah. On a serious note, they can do a darn good job at cartoonish behavior.
And, this is just from today:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8615859/Monkey-steals-camera-to-snap-himself.html
Walt also didn’t think chickens should be animated either, right? It is hard to think that he of all people would be short-sighted but oh well.
For what it is worth, about dancing in general…monkeys or humans…it always has loads of humorous possibilities, especially when done right. Subtle or wild, contrasting or complementing the music, it can all be good.
on 05 Jul 2011 at 10:47 pm 17.Robert Schaad said …
The great thing about your posts that involve photographs (great animation posts notwithstanding) is that they often remind me of the beauty and/or structural properties of things that I take for granted. Especially regarding NYC, because of the sensory overload factor that one experiences just walking down the street.
on 05 Jul 2011 at 10:52 pm 18.Michael said …
I’mm not sure I heard that about chickens. I hink i’d be doubtful that isney would have allowed Clara Cluck in those early films if that had been true. Though he did do “Gorilla Mystery” in 1930 (which was undoubtedly a play on Poe’s “Murder in the Rue Morgue.”)