Bluejake

Lower East Side Stores Polaroids
This was the last series I shot before I moved out of LES. I spent a lot of time that year walking from my apartment over to the one Josh shared with Dan near Tompkins Square Park. I always passed the same bodegas and fruit stands and stationary shops and cheap restaurants. The neighborhood had five of every kind of store- like an echo from the days of the immigrants.

December 2000

Thanksgiving in Los Angeles
My family never does much for Thanksgiving, so K and I decided to go over to California to celebrate the holiday with her family. While we were there we visited the Getty Museum overlooking my favorite highway, the 405, and also went to Griffith Park Observatory to look through the old telescopes. We always end our trips to Los Angeles with a walk on Will Rogers Beach, just south of Malibu.

November 2000

Lower East Side Neon Polaroids
I became interested in how the Polaroid would pick up night scenes- but most shots didn't pan out. I found some success shooting signs around LES- a few of them have a certain lonely beauty. The picture to left reminded me of that sign in the Great Gatsby- I found it over an eyeglass shop on Delancey and Orchard. This series shares a lot in common with the Exterior shots- but I took most of these after midnight.

November 2000

Apple Picking
I love apples- and picking apples is my favorite way to enjoy apples. We jumped in the car with Bill and Thuy and went up to the orchards by Poughkeepsie- it's where everyone who's anyone goes for apple picking and picking up Vassar girls. The fruit was a-plenty on the trees, and they had a good variety of different apple species. I also liked the pumpkins at the roadside stand, and the truly ghetto hayride wagon that kept circling us ominously.

September 2000

Lower East Side Exterior Polaroids
I took this series near the end of the year I spent living on Orchard Street. The picture to the left is the front door of our apartment building at 81 Orchard Street between Grand and Broome. I loved the old streets around there- Essex and East Broadway and Division and Henry. There was a palpable sense of culture that you don't find many places in the city. I wasn't sad to leave LES and move to SoHo- but I do miss those streets from time to time.

September 2000

Israel
K has family in Israel, so we packed up our bags and went out for a visit with the whole family. We started in Netanya, where K's grandmother lives, and then made our way down to her aunt's kibbutz at the northern end of the Dead Sea. Afterwards, we drove up through the West Bank to Jerusalem, and then spent a week in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. About three weeks after we left, the second Intifada started- it's hard to believe it was so quiet while we were there.

August 2000

Summer on the Lower East Side
I had been living with Mike for about six months, and although we had our problems, I really loved this summer on Orchard Street. I felt young and totally free- no job, no money, no nothing. I spent most nights skating around down on Essex and Norfolk, and drinking in the backyard of Good World Bar. Around August I left for a few weeks in Israel, and by the time I got back the whole summer was gone.

July 2000

Newport, Rhode Island
We went up to Newport for Memorial Day and stayed at one of those romantic bed and breakfast type places. I loved Newport- the mansions, the seafood, the water- but it turns out I don't like romantic bed and breakfasts. I guess I'm more of a hotel kind of guy.

May 2000

Los Angeles in Spring
K and I started dating in January of 2000. She grew up in Los Angeles, and I had visited her there before, but this was the first trip where I really started to get to know the city. We only took a few pictures- oddly they are all the La Brea tarpits. Since this trip we've been going out there about four times a year.

March 2000

Lower East Side Friends Polaroids
I moved into the Orchard Street apartment in January of 2000- we had all just spent New Year's Eve in Las Vegas and I was still sorting many things out. During the year I lived in the apartment, my roommate and I had many interesting guests. The people were a mix of old friends from the city, other kids who graduated from Columbia, members of the Stuyvesant HS class of 2001, ex-girlfriends, and strange characters like Shifty Mitch, Matte Mirienne, and Brett Webb.

January 2000-
December 2000

Self-Portrait Polaroids
I think the self-portrait is the lowest form of photograph. In college I went through a period where I appeared in all of my photos and paintings- but that bored everyone to death and led to a lot of bad art. The self-portraits in this collection were taken mostly for lack of another subject, or to try out different things with the Polaroid. Some of the pictures, such as the one to the left, I like very much- there is something about the composition that appeals to me. Others are not as good.

January 2000-
January 2002

Millennium in Las Vegas
I had been having a rough couple of months at the end of 1999, what with the whole medical school situation and everything that followed. While some friends bailed out on me, Josh and Mike and Liz came through, and dragged me out to Sin City for a week of partying. It was the first time in awhile that I felt anything at all. The crowds were insane on the strip, especially in the minutes before 2000, but Liz and I spent some time out in Red Rocks, which was perfectly serene.

January 2000