andy cogbill .com

Been going to lots of museums lately. Well, seeing the outsides of many, actually going into one. Should I explain? Probably.

Well, okay, it all started yesterday when I decided I wanted to take the afternoon off (of job searching) to go to the International Center of Photography and see the really cool daguerreotype exhibit that their web site said they were having. And I felt like a true New Yorker, too, because instead of getting off at the closest subway stop, I decided to go one past it because it was Times Square and I knew it would be mobbed with pesky tourists and pickpockets just waiting to get their hands on my D70. So, yes, I walked the few extra blocks through Rock Center (that’s Rockefeller Center for you non NYers… hehe) and easily found my way to the ICP.

It was closed. It closed that day to install the next exhibit for September 18th. Darn.

So I looked around anyway and pulled out my NFT (Not For Tourists) guide to NYC and decided to improvise. I turned back uptown and walked a few blocks to the Museum of Modern Art, where I spent 5 hours in utter bliss. What a freaking cool museum. Any museum that showcases an Apple computer for its design is cool in my book. Not to mention helicopters and sweet sculptures and Van Gogh paintings (though my favorite ones were by Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper — I guess I like small-town America). Those were all my favorite exhibits until I went to the photography section.

Peter Henry Emerson is my god. His photos were not at all the museum’s focal point but I looked at every photo like five times. That man’s photos are exactly what I aspire to every time I pick up a camera. And now, having seen his work, it will inspire me for my entire photographic future. I couldn’t get enough of his really simple yet beautiful depictions of people in the plains of… wherever. I want to say the U.S., but I’d hate to make a fool of myself. Too late, probably.

Anyway, his photos were jaw-dropping and I loved them so much more than The Starry Night upstairs (though I must say, some of Picasso’s stuff is pretty damned impressive). I need Emerson prints. Anybody got any hookups?

But, I said that I’ve been going to many museums. It’s true. Today I went down to Battery Park (where this photo was taken) in search of the Museum of Jewish Heritage (a Living Memorial to the Holocaust) but I must have gotten lost because I ran into the Museum of Native American Heritage first. I didn’t go in there, either, because there was music coming from the Park. So I wandered over there and watched some acrobats do flips over several people and thought it was very cool. I didn’t pay, though.

And, to top off my day, I had been wandering around the park for a couple hours when I sat down in the setting sun and turned off my iPod to appreciate the surprising quietness when an older man walked by with a Canon 1DS Mk II and a 100-400L IS lens and I said, “whoa.” You’ll imagine my surprise when the guy sat down next to me and started talking me, telling me to take a photo of the statue with the backlit sailboat in front of it. I obliged and we started talking, only to stop an hour or so later when he needed to get back to work. He told me all about his adventures in the business (yes, he is a professional photographer, and yes, I know his name, but he asked me not to print it) and how he has covered 3 wars and 7 presidents and 2 daughters… what a cool guy! I mean, I know I’ve been saying New Yorkers are nice, but this guy just plopped down next to me and started blabbing. It was nice, because he was the first real non-voicemail person I’d talked to all day. And I looked up some of his stuff — he’s good. Real good. Good enough that he really knows it. And says it: “No one can take my pictures. Even with my equipment, no one can take my pictures.”