Jet Lowe in Brooklyn

View from top of Brooklyn Tower looking NW

Just saw Man on Wire about Philippe Petit's walk between the two towers in 1974. Jet Lowe took this picture (and many others) in 1982 while documenting the Brooklyn Bridge for the HABS/HAER project. Notice the old Bell System logo on the central office to the right of the bridge. Click on the picture for a larger version.

Original caption:
42. View from top of Brooklyn Tower looking NW showing main cables and suspendors with lower Manhattan in the background. Jet Lowe, photographer, 1982.
HAER NY,31-NEYO,90-42

Cool Dashboard

Dashboard. Pownal, Vermont photo by Ed Bacher

The weather last week made me feel like this photograph. It was only -4 F here in southern New Hampshire, but up in Berlin, it got down to -37. I made this photograph many years ago in the hills above Pownal, Vermont, where I used my old Ford Pinto as an off-road vehicle to explore the marginal dirt roads.

Walker Evans in Pittsburgh

This image was taken by Walker Evans in December, 1935 in Pittsburgh for the Farm Security Administration.

Pittsburgh Houses

R. S. Clements in New Jersey

ZR3 airship entering hangar at Lakehurst, NJ. R. S. Clements, December 1924. From the Panoramic Photographs collection of Library of Congress.

ZR3 airship

Haverhill, Massachusetts

These panoramic photographs of the Haverhill, Massachusetts waterfront are from the collection of the Library of Congress. That's the Merrimack River in the foreground.

Haverhill Waterfront, 1910

Haverhill Panorama, 1910

Hot Christmas Toy

From McSweeny's: The Stick

Louise Taft Cawood in Ohio

Scioto River Bridge

Louise Taft Cawood took this picture in July 1986 for the HABS/HAER project.

HABS/HAER information:
Scioto Pennsylvania Through Truss Bridge, Spanning Scioto River at State Route 73, Portsmouth, Scioto County, OH
1. VIEW LOOKING ACROSS RECENTLY CULTIVATED FIELD, WITH BRIDGE IN DISTANT BACKGROUND
HAER OHIO,73-PORT,1-1

Jack Boucher in Pittsburgh

Jack Boucher took these photographs at Jones and Laughlin Steel in May 1974 for the HABS/HAER project.

Jones and Laughlin Steel, Pittsburgh
VIEW OF JONES AND LAUGHLIN FROM OAKLAND, LOOKING SOUTH. LEFT: HOT METAL BRIDGE; CENTER: OPEN HEARTH.
HAER PA,2-PITBU,62A-9

Valve, Jones and Laughlin Steel
Jack E. Boucher, Photographer, May 1974. GOVERNOR.


And this of the beautiful Smithfield Street bridge (also in May 1974):
Smithfield Street Bridge
Jack E. Boucher, Photographer, May, 1974. DETAIL VIEW OF THE NORTHEAST PORTAL FROM ROADWAY (WITH TROLLEY).
HAER PA,2-PITBU,58-15

Michael Lewis on Games

Michael Lewis is the best commentator we have on games, from Wall Street to football.

Walker Evans in Pennsylvania

Auto dump near Easton, Pennsylvania

Walker Evans took this photograph for the Farm Security Administration in 1935 during his trip through the Lehigh Valley. This picture is one of my favorite landscapes because it demonstrates Evans' gift for composition and his acerbic sense of humor.

Canada

Chartierville, Quebec photo by Ed Bacher

Just over the border from Pittsburg, New Hampshire, the terrain drops quickly into a wide plain with Parc national du Mont-Mégantic in the distance.

Parc national du Mont-Mégantic


The same place, viewed from above (via Google Maps). You can see how different the terrain is once you cross the border. New Hampshire (and the Connecticut River watershed) pokes up into Canada just north of the Connecticut Lakes. Quebec's Parc national du Mont-Mégantic is the circular ridge.

Bethlehem Steel

Bethlehem Steel Works.
This image, which is part of the panoramic collection of the Library of Congress, was taken from the north bank of the Lehigh River by William Herman Rau in 1896.

Bethlehem graveyard and steel mill. Pennsylvania.
Walker Evans took this photograph for the Farm Security Administration from a cemetery in South Bethlehem looking north toward the works. (1935, FSI collection of Library of Congress)

Update (9/11/2019): this is what the view likes today (thanks to Google street view):

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (via Google street view)

Bethlehem Steel Corporation, South Bethlehem Works, Along Lehigh River, North of Fourth Street, West of Minsi Trail Bridge, Bethlehem, Northampton County, PA
Jet Lowe took this picture in 1972  1979 for the HABS/HAER project, looking downstream from the north side of the Lehigh River.

Bethlehem Steel is now bankrupt, and stopped operating the Bethlehem works in 1995. Most of the site is now being developed as a casino by the Sands Corporation of Las Vegas.

Beach

East Hampton, New York


Dog photo by Ed Bacher




Atlantic Ocean photo by Ed Bacher

Ferry

New London, Connecticut

Ramp photo by Ed Bacher





Rope photo by Ed Bacher

Howard Kaplan on Jonathan Singer

I'm not normally big on flower photographs, but Jonathan Singer is something else. And Howard Kaplan wrote a wonderful story about him in Vanity Fair: Flower Power

Armed with a digital camera, a decades-old printer, and a jeweler’s tool nicknamed the Gadget, New Jersey podiatrist Jonathan Singer takes pictures of endangered flowers. His extraordinary photographs have impressed Eileen Ford, the Smithsonian, and a Japanese collector with very deep pockets.

Jack Alvarez at the Charles Street Jail

Boston, Massachusetts
Rehabilitation may not work for prisoners, but it seems to have worked for the old Charles Street Prison in Boston. Here's a picture taken by Jack Alvarez for the HABS/HAER project:

Charles Street Prison

Over the last couple of years, the prison has been renovated into the Liberty Hotel, with rooms starting at about $300 per night. Here's the new look:

The Liberty Hotel

Silverware

Silverware photo by Ed Bacher


I certainly can't claim that this is an original image or idea, but the silver was lying out on the dining room table waiting to be put away, and I just grabbed my camera and shot a single frame; I like it.

Iceout at Lincoln Pond

Lincoln Pond, Amherst, New Hampshire. April 12 2008 photo by Ed Bacher


The ice on Lincoln Pond broke up just over a month ago. I was on my way to the dump and had my camera in the car. I saw it in color of course, but I think this works better as a black and white image.

Motel 6

The Motel 6 rate in Nashua just went up again, from $45.99 TO $49.99 in anticipation of the Memorial Day weekend. I don't think there will be much politics going on, so it must be the weather.

UPDATE (Friday, May 23): The price went up again to $59.99 today.
UPDATE (Tuesday, May 27): And back to $49.99 again.

NY Times on Mountain Biking in the White Mountains

Last Friday, the New York Times' Escapes section had a piece by Matt Furber, who spent several days riding around the White Mountains with some NEMBA (New England Mountain Biking Association) members.

Some riders have called North Conway the Moab of the East, even though it is a forest habitat rather than high desert. The area is more famous among road bikers because of the 7.6-mile Mount Washington Auto Road Bicycle Hillclimb every August, or the annual Crank the Kanc, a hill climb that takes place along the Kancamagus Highway in late May.

Link to NY Times.