Many days at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city will always hold a special place in my heart. In a city that was loud, chaotic and at times seemed to be completely against me, this museum was truly a place of sanctuary. I would frequent this establishment multiple times a month, getting lost in the expansive winding galleries to retreat within my thoughts. The solid stone walls that held treasures of worlds and times further away than my mind could fathom gave me a respite from the outside world. Time stood still in there. The chaos of the city blocked out, with only the quiet sounds of shuffling feet, whispered observations and the hum of ancient statuary. Any excuse I had to go there, I would take it. With a friend or not, I was always calm and happy within the safety of the museums walls. As my number of visits grew, I learned to recognize art styles and symbols from different places, themes of different time periods in Egyptian art, names of gods and goddesses and chronologies of rulers. I even discovered a female Egyptian King who would come to be a huge historical role model for me.

I also uncovered much about myself within those gallery walls. I found out what exactly moved me, discovered what my true passions in life were. I developed my artist’s eye, my photography skills and my ability to really see a work of art and discover its meaning.

In a way, I grew up in that museum. It was a part of my most formidable years and I will never forget all that it did for me. One day I know I will visit it again. But until that time, I have hundreds of photographs to remember it by. These are a few of my favorites. Most are unedited and I think I will leave them that way; in the state they were made and how I have viewed them for years.

A long time ago…

…in a galaxy far, far away, I used to shoot in film. Fancy fuji color film and sometimes even black and white film. But that shit was expensive as hell to develop and I was a broke 19 year old living in the Flatlands, Brooklyn. Looking back on these film photos its interesting to see all of my experimentation. At that time I read sooo many art magazines, looked at Ansel Adams photo books and poured through National Geographic trying to figure out how to take amazing photos like the ones I admired. Most of these photos are from the time period in my life right after high school when I was still living in Tennessee and then shortly thereafter when I moved to New York. There’s something very special about film photos. The same subject shot on digital may not have the some effect on you as it would shot in film. Maybe one day I’ll dust off that old film camera and see what sort of images I can produce eight years and thousands of photographs later….

All photos are completely unedited, only scanned from the prints.