Here’s my turtle obsessed son getting his mind completely blown. He ran back and forth along the tank and then had me carry him (as if he was swimming) along the side of the tank. It was well worth it to see his reaction to seeing a turtle in person for the first time.
All these photos were taken by my son, Jack (2 years 9 months old), while in his stroller. They haven’t been edited other than my adjustment of the levels and contrast.
That's me buying some peaches.
Jack and I checked out the famed Hollywood Farmer’s Market at Hollywood and Vine this morning. It was incredible. The variety of produce, the colors, the quality – just amazing. Everything you’d expect from a big farmer’s market in this part of this World. The little man did a nice job being patient while I walked up and down the aisles. He’s taken to carrying a camera around and taking pics of random things. Sometimes, he gets a winner here or there. So, I thought I’d start cataloging our Farmer’s Market trips with some of his photos. It’s a nice thing to look forward to all week. Mindy gets to sleep in while he and I head off to the market. Lots of stuff for him to sample which will hopefully help him vary his food likes. Enjoy these snaps.
This is the first photograph, in its 2 megapixel glory, I took when I moved to NYC. I moved here, like many do, with a suitcase, an open mind and a desire to build a business, meet a girl, and order steak frites for delivery at 4am. Thankfully, I leave here knowing I managed to do all that.
New York is the greatest city in the World. There’s no comparison. I love London, I love Barcelona, I love LA, I love SF, I love Stockholm, I love Venice, I love Cape Town and so on, but nothing compares to NYC. It’s a city where on a good day you feel like you’re on top of the World as the people, the cabs, the lights, the noise and the energy seem to lift you up and whisk you around town. On a bad day, all of these things seem to hammer you down to the point of feeling worthless.
From sleeping on couches, to moving furniture in Queens, to doing websites as rent barter the first year was long, but still fun. Long nights with Mario at Milk & Honey (our friend was the bartender) were a highlight. Jen Fowler hired me to do some work for J Records and things fell into place. I somehow stumbled into Southpaw one night after they opened and started djing an indie night there called Painting and Kissing. This was followed by hundreds of posters which got my business going. Somewhere along the line I met a girl called Mindy who is currently reading a book to an amazing kid called Jack.
In the end, I leave this city in a much better place than I arrived and the real thanks go to the city itself. It’s truly the one place that can change your life and if you’re willing to work hard it’ll happen for you. I look forward to moving back here with Mindy when we’re much older. I’ll miss you NYC. Thank you for everything.
Here are some awesome things I learned and experienced in NYC:
1. BEST TIP EVER: if you hate humidity like I do, you need to apply a little Gold Bond powder after you get out of the shower – it stops the sweat. Thanks Ricky!
2. Yo La Tengo performing in Prospect Park to a non-stop light show of fireflies.
3. Playing ping-pong 10 ft. from a Mogwai soundcheck – my ears will never be the same.
4. The blackout of 2002.
5. The fresh mozzarella at Russo’s
6. After work drinks at Pastis – touristy but worth it
7. Late night steak frites at Casimir
8. The crisp air of the Hudson Valley
9. Seeing the Brooklyn Bridge everyday and never tiring of seeing that beautiful behemoth.
10. Riding bikes through Times Square at 3am.
11. Fashion trend hilarity in Williamsburg.
12. Broken Social Scene at the Bowery in 2004.
13. Adopting dogs, while covered in the scent of White Castle, in Queens.
14. The Met, The Moma, The Guggenheim, The Whitney, The Transit Museum, The Jewish Museum, etc.
15. Bike riding with Jack in Prospect Park
16. Documenting Alicia Keys’ second album – a truly phenomenal person I feel lucky to have spent time with.
17. Getting paid to do design work
18. Putting on the Go Team show at Southpaw
19. Vetiver / Vashti Bunyan at Southpaw
20. Being in the same Borough as my sister.
21. Walking around the neighborhood and seeing people you know on every block.
22. The bodega guys letting you pay the next day.
23. LA BAGEL DELIGHT
24. All the fantastic folks I met and all the old friends that moved to NYC.
25. Not owning a car or really needing one for the better part of a decade.
26. Coney Island, Ave P, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Midwood and the rest of the real Brooklyn.
27. Having a studio in DUMBO.
28. The Carlyle Room.
29. Roof decks.
30. Mindy, my love.
The list is endless. I look forward to my new list in Los Angeles. Here’s a parting shot. An old video taken from the Q Train on the Manhattan Bridge.
Q Train 2002 from jon setzen on Vimeo.
I just got back from spending an amazing week in Buenos Aires with John and Misti from the Something Massive LA office. I’d put Buenos Aires in the top 5 of places I have ever visited. You can see another 50 photos or so on my Flickr page. I took all of these with my lovely little Panasonic Lumix – the only digital camera I’ve ever kept for more than a year.
Here’s my first color roll of film with the little Poketo Slim Angel Wide Angle. These turned out exactly as I had hoped and it’s so amazing to see the difference in the light between NYC and LA. I love NYC, but look at the February weather in LA.
A few months ago I found this red Lomolito sitting in a cabinet in my studio. It still had about a dozen shots left on it so I took with me to the farmer’s market at Grand Army Plaza and took some shots there as well as in Prospect Park. Some of the ones turned out pretty well. I find with these disposal lomo cameras you get a lot more grain on the photos which I like, but the color are less unpredictable and saturated as your standard Lomo. Regardless, I think you get four disposals for about $12. If you put the little colored lens over the flash it is supposed to put a filter on the images. This worked best with the green one while the yellow filter made everyone look really sick.
Here are a handful of photos taken with my Lomo Diana. They’re all from Half Moon Bay – one of my favorite places on Earth and home to my favorite meal on Earth: The Dungeness Crab Sandwich at Barbara’s Fish Trap.
It’s our last Winter in New York City. The first snowfall of the season is always the best. It’s so beautiful out. No one seems angry or agro right now – just lots of people out walking around, catching snowflakes on their tongues and pulling kids in sleds. Cars drive slowly and are courteous. The city seems soft. It all changes 24 hours later when everything turns slushy and grey, but for that first little bit you forget where you are. It’s that perfect kind of snow like soft confetti that sticks and mounts up perfectly. I’m looking forward to taking Jack out for some sledding in the AM – his first time. I’ll miss this next year. So, I figured I’d dust off the tripod and head across the street to Prospect Park to take some pics.
My dad grew up swimming and surfing on Muizenberg Beach in Cape Town and it’s still one of the best places you can swim in the World except for the numerous shark attacks. I came across this great photo of Muizenberg’s colorful changing rooms on Flickr. The photo credit belongs to Wayne Champion.
I managed to get out of work at a reasonable time and got to hang out with Jack and Mindy in the Park early this evening. I love dusk. It’s the best time of day. I love it so much that we made it my kid’s middle name. It was a perfect almost-Fall evening in here in NYC. It felt cold and the park smelled like trees and grass and not gross bbq, garbage and soda. We lay on the grass for a bit watching the planes go by as Prospect Park is right in the flight path of planes landing at La Gaurdia in the early evenings. I’ll miss a lot about NYC. Prospect Park (anytime but during bbq season) is right near the top of the list.
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