Working the Park

Photographing the heart of New York by Regi Metcalf

There's a YouTube video of a world-famous street photographer (I think it's Joel Meyerowitz) talking about how, over the years, he's returned to a particular pedestrian intersection to make street photos. It's a place that is as much always the same as it is always changing.

Ever since I saw that video, I've wanted that for myself. I felt it would help me grow as a street photographer. I felt I needed a place to which I could return on a regular basis. A place where I could get familiar with the environment, and, over time, I could figure out the best angle or background or the best kind of light or lens at a given time to get a particular kind of shot. A place that was constantly changing and where there would always be something new and interesting that could offer me a constant flow of challenges and inspire me to try new things.

New York certainly has plenty of possibilities. But I suspect that only particular places will work for particular photographers.

Washington Square Park seems to suit me. It's basically a large circle, surrounded by sections of trees and grass, inside a larger square block with a fountain in the middle. The paths between the trees flow in from NoHo, SoHo, Greenwich Village and NYU. They feed-in and siphon-off both visitors to the park as a destination and people just passing through to who knows where beyond.

My habit was to go on Saturdays, every week for a couple of years (now, I'm trying out other places as well) when the park is full of artists and, these days, pot entrepreneurs selling their art and "pre-rolls". Musicians, rappers, skateboarders, dancers and many others wishing to see or be seen, pass through or stay awhile, to perform for donations from those who gather around them or just for themselves or each other.

People come to the park for various reasons or no particular reason. I am happy to see them. I’m jealous and afraid of them. I’m emboldened and inspired by them. They are flattered, bored, annoyed, offended, amused or completely oblivious. I try to put all of that in the frame.

They’re coming from who-knows-where-in-the-world and are going to wherever they end up, but they all have being there, in the park, in common, whenever they were there. These photos are my notes of having seen them there. They attest to the power of the park to bring people there and, in being there, together.

As the sun goes down, tempers grow short and inhibitions lower.

While these are photos of people, I think the totality of the park itself is the overarching (no pun intended) subject of the project. In my small way, I'm adding a little to the story of this tiny corner of this really big city. What started out as "just" a way to practice photography has become an exercise in reintroducing myself to the city and, in turn maybe, the city to me. Perhaps especially (but not exclusively) because of the pandemic era, I really needed that reset. I'm sharing these photos in part, at least, because others may want that reset, as well.

SHOP TALK
When I started this project, I used a crop sensor body with glass that approximated a fast 50mm lens.

A recent exhibition of the late William Klein’s work inspired me to start playing with a wider lens. The idea is to get even closer AND get more into the frame. Now I’m using a full-frame Sony with a standard wide-telephoto range lens during the day and a fast 35mm when the sun goes down. Some of that wider framing can be seen in this issue vs no 1.

(Occasionally, at night, I’ve been known to use an Olympus Pen, because it’s very small, yet has an on-camera flash.)

ZINES

I've now published two editions of "Working the Park” and am currently working on a third edition.

Dahwoud Bey advises one to decide where you want your photos to be seen because it will inform the kind of photos you take. That resonates with me for this project.

Fortunately for me, as it happens, this zine series is the way that I want these photos to be seen.

I’ve always been interested in making zines, but never quite had the incentive. I like anthologies & collections of stories a bit more than novels. Short attention span, I guess.

So I like producing something I would be entertained by in that same way. These zines can be looked at for a few seconds in the middle of the day or night. Like a visual snack! or, if moved to do so, they can be seen within the larger context of the whole series over time. As the photos have accumulated over my quasi-weekly days of making them for almost two years now, it’s become something I’d like to keep going, for as long as I’m in the City and have enough photos that I think are worth sharing.

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Check out Regi Metcalf's zines below:

Working the park, no. 1
Working the park, no 2


Photographs & writing by Regi Metcalf
Editing by Mei Seva

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