Get off your butt and get to New York. The Cristo and Jeanne-Claude installation ‘The Gates’ is only there from February 12th to the 27th. Sarah and I had the pleasure of joining the Montalvo Arts Center tour this weekend. I took 180 photographs, but I’m only going to share a few of my favorites here. The artists state that "the art does not mean anything," which many New Yorkers agree with wholeheartedly. Nonetheless, the experience is wonderful – you can choose to layer meaning onto it or simply enjoy the spectacle of it.

We were fortunate to have a day with seemingly infinite visibility. The winter trees gave a stark gray contrast to the vivid orange of the gates and the bright blue sky.

We understood from a volunteer that by 2pm on Sunday over two million people had visited the park that day. The paths were quite crowded, but everyone was friendly and having a great time.


About the pictures: the top picture was shot early in the day (thus the great angle with the sun so low). It’s my favorite, and took the pressure off for the rest of the day. The second picture (first on the left) I like because of the different angles and altitudes of the gates, along with the gray trees. The third is a time exposure on Sunday night – I would have liked to have been farther into the park, but it was pouring rain. The final picture was also taken at night in the rain, this time looking straight up – this one has a very organic feel to it, as if it’s in the ocean. The fabric is glistening because of the rain. I love using a flash outdoors at night – they only light locally so the background always disappears into black.