It was a dark and snowy night...

The excellent photos by Grant Shaffer

The photogenic recyclables of East 2nd Street

The daily activity outside D & D Salvage on East Second Street between First Avenue and Second Avenue caught the eye of East Village resident Stephanie Nilva, who recently began documenting the streetscene here.

"I walk by every morning and I loved how the bundles look — the colors, the textures," she said.

A look at NASA's Minotaur Rocket streaking across the East Village sky

Last evening, the U.S. Air Force launched an Orbital Sciences Minotaur 1 rocket into orbit from a (really?) Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. Per HuffPo:

The nighttime launch could light up the sky for millions of observers along a wide swath of the Eastern Seaboard, and could be visible from just northeastern Canada and Maine to Florida, and from as far inland as Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky, depending on local weather conditions, according to NASA and Orbital Sciences visibility maps.

The rocket launched into space at 8:15 p.m. And acclaimed photographers James and Karla Murray got this shot ... as the thing traveled some 11,700 mph (per those nerds at space.com)... over our airspace...




Space, the final frontier for more luxury housing...

A view of the Village View

High contrasts by EVG contributor jdx

East Village at night

We featured the photography of East Village resident Sally Davies here earlier this year... wanted to share a few more of her recent photos from around the neighborhood...









Find more of her photos and info on her website.

The photography of Jefferson Siegel

You've likely seen Jefferson Siegel's news photography (and byline) in The Villager, Daily News and elsewhere... He recently launched a new site showcasing his photos ... (and he continues to add to it...)

I've always liked his work, especially his Occupy Wall Street coverage. You can find his site here.

The photography of East Village resident Sally Davies

East Village resident Sally Davies moved here in 1983 ... and has never stopped taking photos... the painter and photographer shared a few more recents shots with us...

"I like to shoot things that don't necessarily reveal their time, and there are still lots of those visuals here," she said.

"People often think my images are of the old days, but really they aren't," she said. "Those things are still around if you look."

"That wheelchair was on the roof of a buildilng directly outside my living-room window — a big party house. One morning after a wild party, the wheelchair was sitting there," she said. "And it sat there for about three years. So I got several pics of it, in different seasons. Then one day it was gone. Poof."

We also found a photo of neighborhood legend Eddie Boros in her portfolio... Boros, who erected the Tower of Toys in the Sixth Street and Avenue B Community Garden, died in April 2007...

"[There was] nobody like Eddie. I miss him."

Find more of her photos and info on her website.

A Coney Island Blondie, and other photos in Bob Gruen's new book

[© Bob Gruen, 1977]

Rock 'n' roll photographer Bob Gruen has a new career-covering book out of his work, such as that photo of Debbie Harry at Coney Island in 1977. Abrams released the book yesterday. We're going to go find it at the St. Mark's Bookshop. Karate Boogaloo has more on it at stupefaction. Check out Gruen's website here.

New York City history through the lens of Ai Weiwei

[Outside Tompkins Square Park, 1986 — Ai Weiwei]

From the EV Grieve inbox ...

Asia Society Museum presents an exhibition of 227 photographs taken by famed Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, capturing the history, culture, and atmosphere of 1980s New York from his unique perspective.

The exhibit opens today, and closes on Aug. 14.

Asia Society Museum
725 Park Avenue (at 70th Street)
Details here.

20 years on St. Mark's Place

You can catch this exhibit by photographer Jesper Haynes starting tonight at Gallery Onetwentyeight, 128 Rivington St.

I planned on requesting a quick interview with Haynes... but decided to run an excerpt from his blog instead:

In 1986, I moved to my apartment on 90 St. Marks Place, in New York's East Village. It was above the St. Mark's Bar & Grill where the Rolling Stones had just filmed the video for "Waiting on a Friend". It was to be my home, and the backdrop for much of my photography, for the next 20 years.

In those days St. Marks was a rough place. It bustled with runaways and skate kids, with dealers and dime bag rappers and fabulously dressed low-lifes on their way to or from an after-hours club.

... however, life at St Marks began to change. The local fleabag movie house became a Gap clothing store. The Korean delis were replaced by Starbucks. Whole blocks were renovated and gentrified. St Marks was becoming hip. Rents began to rise and the artists, inevitably, started moving out.

My turn came in 2006 when my landlady, with whom I had developed a very close friendship, died. Her daughter inherited the building. Being a businesswoman, in a city that was now all about business, she saw the chance of higher rents and a different breed of renter. She duly gave us a three-month notice of eviction.

I still dream of that apartment and the intense, beautiful, often riotous, times I had there.
These photographs are an honest, spontaneous record of what I have lived and of the lives and loves for which my home in St. Marks became the setting.

[Jesper Haynes]

A few highlights from the week-long exhibit:
Opening Reception Thursday June 23 6-9 PM
Slide show, Book signing and Artist Q & A - Tuesday June 28 7 PM
Closing Party Thursday June 30 6-9 PM

Dinner at Takahachi on Avenue A the other night

Photo by John Marshall Mantel.

The photography of Steven Hirsch

When we last checked in with Steven Hirsch, the East Village-based photographer was busy posting photos and essays for his Tompkins Square Park-based Crustypunks site.

These days, Hirsch has been uploading more shots on his photoblog.

Here are a few of them, from the East Village and locations around the city...

He is currently teaching at Pratt Institute. You can find more of his photos here.

[Reposted with permission]

Humans of New York

Brandon Stanton is on a mission: He wants to find every interesting person in the city, and take their photograph.

And he's on his way. He currently has nearly 1,400 portraits on his website — Humans of New York.

Here's his mission statement:

Humans of New York is a multi-year project to construct a photographic census of the city of New York. The team consists of one man, who walks the streets several hours a day, looking for interesting people, and taking their photograph. Currently, the project is in the gathering phase. The goal is 10,000. Photos are uploaded as they are collected, and arranged by date. When a substantial body of portraits has been gathered, they will be grouped by neighborhood and displayed geographically. Upon completion, an interactive map will show every neighborhood in New York through the faces of its inhabitants.

So far, he has taken plenty of photos in the East Village, including:

The site also includes accompanying stories. Yesterday, he had photos of a traveler on St. Mark's Place named Rancid and her dog Riot. You can find her story here.

I asked Brandon about taking photos in the East Village compared to other parts of the city.

"Anywhere in the East Village is an easy day. The general rule is: 'Anyone who is out to be seen, is willing to be photographed.' Beautiful girls, fashionistas, artists — they love to be seen," he says. "The farther you get from the artistic and high-fashion crowd, the more resistance you run into. In the East Village, I probably get about 90 percent of the portraits I ask for. Somewhere like Bedford-Stuyvesant, that number drops below 50 percent.

"I do tend to value the portraits from rougher neighborhoods more, because they are harder to obtain, and rarer. But whenever I get rundown, its back to the East Village for a breather."

Find more at Humans of New York here.

[All photos by Brandon Stanton. Reprinted with permission]