You just never know what you’ll find…
Starts the day at the West Side Diner. A lot like the Manhattan Cafe that I frequent on the Upper West Side for extended breakfast. Even though there are a thousand places to eat breakfast in New York, I tend to lean towards what I know.
Funny how that works. Basic human characteristics. A city of 8-million and a diner on every corner and you find yourself becoming a “regular.”
The human mind thrives on routine, I guess. Same subway even though half the time there is a half-dozen ways to get within a block of your intended destination.
Its normalcy. And even in the center of the universe, the human needs a limited universe to call his/her own. Same breakfast diner. Same coffeeshop.
So, what happens when the human wants something “counter culture”?
Are they insane? Are they eccentric?
Maybe so.
I don’t know if I’ve crossed the line in to eccentricity yet, but I love the different. I love the things that are not always the same or how life is expected. I’m no PETA hawker like you see here in front of Macy’s, but I definitely don’t mine the unorthodox.
Then why the cafes? Why the same places over and over?
Like the licks to the center of the Tootsie pop, the world may never know.
Anyways… I love street photography.
Normal life. The human condition, as it were. The things people do. The things some people take for granted because they pass them every day.
Maybe in the sitting down and becoming a “regular” at a certain place, its allowing yourself to slow down for just a moment and come in off the street and become a little of the scene you – as an image-minded individual – studies constantly.
While eating breakfast at the West Side Diner, we met Bernice. She’s an aging jazz singer in an Upper West Side jazz club on certain nights. She calls it open mic night. But she’s a regular.
She does it because she loves doing it, not to make money. And, probably, she’s pretty good at it.
But, she’s a regular. After a few days, I know a few people. After a few weeks, I might know the whole crowd.
I became part of the scene. And there’s something right about that every once in a while.
Stay tuned…
-Noah D.
