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Thursday, August 20, 2009

On Crowds and the New Yorker Festival

Candid, Midtown
Photo by myself on a Midtown sidewalk.

One of my indulgences has to be taking candid photographs of crowds.

You can capture a multitude of expressions, gestures and clothing style, within a split second on any street corner. Additionally, the layers of people give an image depth.

I'd love to know the story of the gentleman, above.

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The New Yorker Festival is on again this year, October 16-18th. If you haven't been, you can sign up to receive an early calendar of events, online.

Over the years, I've seen talks with Steve Martin, David Byrne, Malcom Gladwell, Chuck Close and late Richard Avedon, among others. Steve Martin of course picked up his banjo and David Byrne performed the acoustic guitar.

All the talks were reasonably priced. I cannot say enough great things about the series, which includes readings from current authors, round tables with noted thinkers and even movies.

For more about the Festival click here.
To sign up for the Festival Wire, the calendar of events, click here.

Related posts: Queuing Up at Grand Central Terminal, Union Square in Black and White and Slowing Down to See the Details.

7 comments:

Olivier said...

tu as de la chance, je suis fan de Steve Martin, j'aurais bien voulu voir ça
you are lucky, I am fan of Steve Martin, I would be kind enough to see this

Washington Cesar Takeuchi said...

Hi Kitty!

You really do a great job in your candid pictures. A moment of those people's life was frozen and watching them in the frame, we can start wondering what were they thinking at that exact moment? What are their story? Tks!

Washington

James said...

Taking candid pictures of people is fun. You just have to be careful. I've been confronted a few times in Philadelphia and New Jersey. This is a nice shot and I bet the guy in the suit is sweating.

dianasfaria.com said...

thanks for the reminder Kitty, I've never been & I love hearing artists give talks!

Kitty said...

Hi Olivier
Perhaps your visit this October will coincide with the Festival?

Martin is a fixture there. I wouldn't be surprised to see his name in the calendar this year.

Thanks Washington! You're too kind.

Hi James
I've been extremely lucky so far. I'd be quite shocked to be confronted and wouldn't know what to do.

I hope your confrontations weren't too traumatic.

Hi Lily
I hope you go and have a good experience.

Please note if you're trying to get tickets to something that you think will be hugely popular, you have to call the instant the tickets go on sale.

Unknown said...

Hi Kitty - Great blog - I stumbled upon it while checking out the NYer festival. I'm flying over to NY from Ireland and was dissapointed to see most of the good stuff is sold out. The website says 10% of the tickets for all events go on sale on the Friday of the festival - I wonder does this mean in practice: 3 tickets for 200 people to queue for!? Do you have any experience of buying those last day tickets? Any help appreciated! Andy

Kitty said...

Hi Andy

I hope you get this reply. I am a little OCD, so when purchasing tickets for this event, I am at my phone or computer at noon on the dot. Popular talks are sold out within minutes.

There was one talk last year involving visiting Jeff Koons' artist space (I think? It was someone very well known). That talk was sold out to begin with. No one had a chance.

I haven't tried getting tickets at the door, but I'd suggest getting there very early. How early, I have no idea. A couple hours? Some fans are a bit nuts.

I wish you good luck! There are so many talks, I hope you get to see at least one.