LAUNCHED: OldNYC.org

From the New York Times:

Before there were Walgreens and frozen yogurt shops, SoulCycle and Thai fusion places, what extinct New York institutions sat on your block? A new website called OldNYC peels away a century’s worth of development and puts you outside coffee shoppes and quarantine hospitals. You might find a trolley running outside your apartment, or a hand-pushed vegetable cart at your corner. The website maps sepia-colored photographs of nearly every block in Manhattan, and has many of the outer boroughs as well. OldNYC is the work of a more modern preservationist: Dan Vanderkam, a software engineer at Mount Sinai’s Hammer Lab. He built OldSF while living in San Francisco, but by the time it went online, he had transplanted to New York. After about 18 months of work, and with help from the public library, OldNYC went public last week.

Check it out here. (And there goes your morning, New Yorkers.) Below is my stretch of Second Avenue back in 1941. Add in a few hundred skyscrapers in the background and it doesn't look all that different.

So This Happened On Friday

The photo was taken by White House photographer Pete Souza, which would explain why it was attached to the above tweet. But try telling that to Teabagistan, which has erupted in the usual mockery.

NYC Artist Wins Privacy Suit Over Photos Taken Through His Neighbors' Windows

Two years ago I reported that residents of a luxury Tribeca building were furious about an art gallery's exhibition of photos taken through their windows from an apartment across the street. A lawsuit shortly followed, of course, and this week a panel of  judges made their decision:

Want privacy? Buy shades. That was the message sent by a panel of Appellate Division judges Thursday when they tossed a lawsuit by a Tribeca family who said a photographer invaded their privacy by secretly taking their pictures for a year and then putting them in an exhibit. Lensman Arne Svenson acknowledged that he snapped the unguarded shots of Martha and Matthew Foster and their young children through the floor to ceiling windows of their loft, which is across the street from his apartment. The judges said Svenson’s protracted lurking in the shadows of his darkened apartment was “disturbing” but neither a violation of criminal stalking laws nor a violation of the family’s civil rights as state law is now written because Svenson’s photos were works of art. In an interview with photography blog PetaPixel, Svenson said he “shot for the tiny nuances of gesture and posture that define who we are, collectively. The subjects are to be seen as representations of humankind, not identifiable as the actual people photographed.”

The judges declared that their hands were tied by the lack of an applicable law and suggested that the family take their privacy concerns to the state legislature. The photographer's lawyer expressed concern over that advice, saying that expectations of privacy in a "dense urban environment" are not absolute.

Image Of Russian Gay Couple Wins World Press Photo Of The Year For 2014

Via the Associated Press:

An atmospheric image of a gay couple in Russia by Danish photographer Mads Nissen was crowned the World Press Photo of the Year 2014 on Thursday. The intimate image of Jon and Alex is part of a larger project by Nissen called "Homophobia in Russia" that highlights how life is increasingly difficult for sexual minorities in Russia. Nissen said he sees the image, shot in St. Petersburg, as "a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story" about two people in love but facing outside forces who want to deny them their feelings. Its sensitivity also appeared intended to act as a counterpoint to gruesome photographs and video spread by terrorists that increasingly come to dominate the news. "Today, terrorists use graphic images for propaganda. We have to respond with something more subtle, intense and thoughtful," said World Press Photo jury member Alessia Glaviano.

Nearly 100,000 images from over 5700 photographers were submitted for the contest.  See many more of the top-ranked photos here. (Tipped by JMG reader Cricket)

NYC Museums Ban Selfie Sticks

Via the New York Observer:

The MoMA is one of the first in NYC to officially ban the stick, although it’s technically always been restricted. A representative from the museum stated, “It has long been a policy that visitors may only use handheld devices to take photos, without any camera extension devices. We have simply added selfie-sticks to this policy, which is in place to ensure the safety of our visitors and the Museum’s works of art.” Other museums have either already banned the sticks or are seriously considering it. Gothamist reported that the Guggenheim and The Frick no longer allow them, and that the Met hasn’t yet reached a decision.

The official reason for the ban is the possibility of damage to artwork.

New York City By Drone

Via the New York Daily News:

Bronx-based photographer Victor Chu spent the last six months on an ambitious project: documenting landmarks in all five boroughs of New York City with a camera and aerial drone. His recently completed short video, made from 10 hours of tape shot over the past six months, is Chu's tribute to the city where he's lived most of his life. "There's been a couple of videos about New York City shot with a drone, but they always cover Manhattan. They never cover the Bronx and Staten Island and the other boroughs,” said Chu, 29. "They are neglecting the other wonderful parts about New York City." Chu — an editorial, event and portrait photographer based in Morris Park — began the project as a demo reel for his website, but he’s now entering the video in contests and film festivals.

Supercell Time-Lapse

3.4M views in two days.

Super Cool WTC Interactive Panorama

TIME Magazine has posted a ridiculously cool interactive panorama photo taken from above the World Trade Center. Using your cursor and the on-screen controls, you can spin around in all directions and zoom in on midtown, Brooklyn, New Jersey, even the Statue of Liberty. I'm finding it works best on Chrome so far. There goes the next hour of your evening.

Here's how they did it.

Time said it got exclusive access to the tower's spire from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site. It took eight months to design and construct a 13-foot rotating arm to which a camera with a 100-millimeter lens was mounted, the magazine said on its website. It worked on the project with Portland, Ore.-based GigaPan Systems, mechanical engineers and welders. "Over a five-hour span of orbital shooting on Sept. 28, 2013, the camera produced 567 pictures that were then stitched together digitally into a single massive — and zoomable — image of everything the eye can see in all directions," according to the website. According to GigaPan, its panoramic photography equipment is based on the same technology employed by NASA's Mars rovers to capture the images of the red planet. The panoramic image also is featured as a wrap-around cover of Time's issue hitting newsstand Friday. The issue includes an article about the 12-year construction of the building, formerly called the Freedom Tower.

Unfortunate Photo Of The Day

Israel's Haaretz has the story:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference on Tuesday in which they addressed weighty topics such as Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Iranian nuclear program and bilateral ties. Shortly afterward, their meeting was nearly eclipsed by a photograph of the two leaders attributed to Jerusalem Post photographer Marc Israel Sellem. The image began making waves on Twitter and Facebook, and made it to the top of the Drudge Report site and other international outlets by Tuesday afternoon.

Twitter is going nuts.

Lightning Damages Brazil's Christ Statue

Multiple lightning strikes blew the right thumb off Brazil's famous Christ The Redeemer statue.  Gawker has more amazing photos.

This Is The 2013 Photo Of The Year For The Sports Site Deadspin

Deadspin has named the above as their favorite sports photo of 2013.

In January, photographer Deanne Fitzmaurice was on assignment for Sports Illustrated when she went to a San Francisco gay bar, HiTops, during the 49ers-Falcons NFC Championship game. She was assigned to get a photo that would accompany a story about the diversity of 49ers fans. Her photo, above, was a dream shot: Two guys making out, just as the 49ers took a fourth-quarter lead.

It was a random smooch and the photographer later learned that the two men were not a couple. (Tipped by JMG reader Helen)

Vatican Squashes Gay Photo Exhibit

After threats of legal action from the Vatican, an art gallery in Rome has covered up its exhibit of photos depicting gay men kissing in Catholic churches. Pink News reports:

The photography series by Gonzalo Orquin, had been due to open at the Galleria L’Opera beginning on Wednesday evening. The photographer said the gallery had received a legal notice from the Vatican, and that he and the gallery had decided to cover up the photographs. “A letter arrived from the Vicariate of Rome, an organization that is part of the Vatican, which said the church is against the exhibition. I spoke to lawyers and for security reasons we decided not to show the photos,” Orquín told The Local. The Vicariate admitted sending the threatening letter, and said the exhibition “could harm the religious sentiment of the faithful”. The Vicariate is an organisation which helps Pope Francis carry out his duties as Bishop of Rome.

According to a Vatican spokesman, the photos are illegal because the Italian constitution "safeguards an individual’s religious feeling and the function of places of worship."

Photo Of The Day

From Reddit's front page. Ow, my balls. (Via Andres Duque.)

Microscope Photography

IO9 has posted a stunning collection of photographs taken through powerful microscopes. Above is common household dust "with cat fur, long hair, twisted synthetic and woolen fibers, a pollen grain and insect remains." I posted the least gruesome example.

Photo Of The Day

Mashable says this photo from Boston's Fenway Park "may be the funniest photo in baseball history."

If a picture tells a thousand words, as the old cliche goes, then this amazing sports shot is good for at least a million. Seriously, every single face here tells a story. Stories of dreams. Stories of fears. Stories of courage under fire, and panic under duress. In short, the stories of men and women drilled down to their true essences, finding out who they really are in the split second it takes for a rock-hard baseball to come hurtling from the heavens down into their once-tranquil section of Fenway Park.

Embiggen and see if you can tell who caught the ball.

NEW YORK CITY: Judge Dismisses Suit Against Telephoto "Voyeur" Photographer

Back in the spring, I mentioned that residents of a luxury Tribeca building were seething about an art gallery's exhibition of photos taken of them with a telephoto lens from an apartment across the street.  Yesterday a state judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by the building's tenants, two of whom claimed that their children's faces were identifiable in the photos.

"An artist may create and sell a work of art that resembles an individual without his or her written consent," Judge Rakower wrote in her decision, underscoring a central principle of the case. Under New York state law, it is illegal to use a person's likeness for commercial purposes without written consent. But Judge Rakower rejected the Foster's argument on the grounds that New York state civil rights laws "yield to an artist’s protections under the First Amendment under the circumstances presented here.” She also concluded that Svenson's images were primarily works of art, not advertising or objects for commercial trade, so they weren't in violation of state privacy laws. ”The value of artistic expression outweighs any sale that stems from the published photos," she wrote in the ruling.

As the above-linked article notes, many New Yorkers were furious with the photographer and the gallery. Close the drapes, folks. Or leave them open and wait for your own gallery debut.

Photographer Joe Hepworth

This afternoon Father Tony and I dropped in at the 14th biennial Fire Island Pines Art Show, where my pal (and former NYC Eagle bartender) Joe Hepworth was showing some of his photography.

NASA's Photo Of The Day

NASA explains today's photo:

The Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda (aka M31), a mere 2.5 million light-years distant, is the closest large spiral to our own Milky Way. Andromeda is visible to the unaided eye as a small, faint, fuzzy patch, but because its surface brightness is so low, casual skygazers can't appreciate the galaxy's impressive extent in planet Earth's sky. This entertaining composite image compares the angular size of the nearby galaxy to a brighter, more familiar celestial sight. In it, a deep exposure of Andromeda, tracing beautiful blue star clusters in spiral arms far beyond the bright yellow core, is combined with a typical view of a nearly full Moon. Shown at the same angular scale, the Moon covers about 1/2 degree on the sky, while the galaxy is clearly several times that size. The deep Andromeda exposure also includes two bright satellite galaxies, M32 and M110 (bottom).

(Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

Photo Of The Day: The Earth From Saturn

Sky News reports:

The Cassini spacecraft has captured a rare image of Earth taken hundreds of millions of miles away from the outer Solar System. The picture was captured on July 19 by the probe's wide-angle camera from a distance of 900 million miles. Magnifying the image five times reveals not only the Earth but also the Moon, a fainter smudge to the right of the planet. Dr Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at the American space agency Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, US, said: "We may not be able to see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19.

(Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)

Photo Of The Day

That's (sort of) the view from atop the world's tallest building, Dubai's 160-story Burj Khalifa. Gizmodo has the deets on how the photo was made. By the way, it can cost up to $100 to visit the observation deck.  Here are some of the records the building has set.