I’m still working my way through all these NYC photos from last months Out of New York Photo Conference. Post 1 was skylines, post 2 our Midtown Photowalk and this round is our lengthy, but fun, photowalk from the East Village back to Midtown.
We started our walk at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Very interesting, minimalistic architecture amidst lower-rise, historic buildings. It feels like a breath of fresh air in the area. Rising high above the neighboring buildings with a bright white facade of mesh aluminum allowing natural light to fill the interiors. The shifting  cubes moving from north, south, east and west add to the amount of natural light entering the galleries as well.
In normal shooting circumstances, meaning if I were shooting alone, I would have visited the interior of the museum, but when leading photowalks with larger groups this isn’t typically an option. So, we stuck to photographing the exterior. Despite finding this building interesting I found it kinda difficult to photograph. The only shot I got that I like well enough is the first one below.

To see some color versions of the New Museum and a slightly wider context you can check this set.
Our next stop was Cooper Union. This is a school solely dedicated to architecture, fine arts and engineering. Up until 2014 each student admitted received a full-tuition scholarship, even today each student receives at least a half-tuition scholarship. It’s one of the country’s most selective colleges with acceptance rates below 10%. Founder, Peter Cooper, an American Industrialist, wanted the school to be “free and open to all”, hence the generous tuition assistance.
The images I’m sharing are from the new building, 41 Cooper Square, across the street from the original school. It’s a “green” building and the facade, like the New Museum above, is meant to allow natural light to fill the interior. There are also exterior wall panels that can be opened and closed to help control light and temperature, among other “green” features. You’ll see some of the open panels in the images below.



One color version since I liked the warm glow contrasting with the steel facade.

Now back to a couple in black & white…


Onto the interior. We were only allowed in the very beginning of the lobby but managed to photograph the very cool spiral staircase in the central part of that area. First, though, a little ceiling and partial staircase shot.

The next three are some abstracts of that staircase. I played around a bit with the white balance to give a bit of a purple glow.



There are a number of other images from this staircase (color & bw) and the exterior of the building in this set here.
About a block away from Cooper Union we stumbled across 101 Astor Place. This was not part of the photowalk plan but when you see something photo-worthy you just have to make an exception. I love the sharp angles and the fact that we had blue skies with some clouds made photographing this all the better. All bw below but of course there are color options (and more versions) too…click here.


This final 101 Astor share is an addition to my Cloudscrapers series.

Our final stop of this photowalk was the Flatiron building. I love this building, and it was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham (an icon of architecture and city planning just like this NYC building), but I seriously struggle with creating an image I love of this. Both times I’ve visited have been in the late afternoon, with harsher sun at its back. This allows for a great sunburst and drama but the details are lost. Next visit I need to head here at a different time of day.

As always, far more images of NYC from this walk and previous posts, just head over here.