With the Mercedes-Benz SS13 Fashion Week here in NYC I’m dedicating posts to fashion brands. Here is Armani. The store on 5th Avenue with its arrays of vertical lights is a bit too much for me, but the space it and the surrounding buildings create is very intriguing. The lights actually help emphasize the windows and architecture in the neighboring buildings. For those interested in fashion, hop over to my other site and see the Straight Up commission I have this week.
Today’s image is in honor of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week 2013 Spring Collection happening in New York City this week. I photographed this in the AM today but had to cut my session short since the thick air finally turned to rain. So one shot it is–I’m sure to revisit this subject on a sunnier day.
This week’s posts will feature the brick and mortar structures and space surrounding the large fashion brand flagship stores. I begin with Louis Vuitton. Not only are their stores and products gorgeous, they are the epitome of luxury. The exterior treatment this season is inspired by Yayoi Kusama. Adorning the Louis Vuitton flagship store on 5th avenue on 57th street are a swirl of black polka dots which are simply stunning. This particular view also happens to show the Bergdorf-Goodman store, though less prominent.
The other reason I’m starting with Louis Vuitton this week can be seen at my other website Cameron R Neilson which features Fashion Straight Up. The Straight Up series has immeasurably influenced all my work.
This is an early image testing the concept of whether only tall skyscrapers would render well Straight Up. The intersection of Stanton and Orchard streets in the lower east side of Manhattan made for an ideal proof.
Dodging traffic isn’t an ideal situation when making photographs. In this instance I chose an early Sunday morning in Portland, Oregon to photograph the Hawthorne Bridge. I scouted the day previous and selected a viewpoint from the roadway. I had my dad, who lives in Portland, help spot for cars. Luckily the morning proved to be sleepy with only a couple cars coming by. The real difficulty is that bridges shake. After each passing car, I had to wait 20 seconds or so for all vibrations to stop.
The House of Falling furniture titled “Defenestration” is a fun find. The furniture literally appears to be falling out from the windows. Apparently it took a hundred volunteers to create this installation in an abandoned building on 6th and Howard in San Francisco. Sometimes I think perhaps this overall series should be titled “The foulest street corners I’ve known.” This one in particular (it could have been the day) was exceptionally rank with several examples of abandoned and overly ripe discarded clothing.
The height and structure of the Cassa hotel intersects the lower building on 6th Ave and to help create this unique city skyline.
