Street Photography | NYC's San Gennaro's Feast

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I chanced on Little Italy's San Gennaro Feast last weekend, and despite the incredibly packed crowds, I managed to make a few photographs here and there. It was lunchtime which explained the crowds moving at a snail's pace, ogling the menus of the full to capacity Italian restaurants with tables overflowing on Mulberry Street in Little Italy/Chinatown. The whole of Little Italy was blocked to traffic, so pedestrians were packed like sardines with little room to compose interesting frames.

I felt I had been transported to a filming shoot for The Sopranos, hearing exaggerated Italian American accents all around me; some inviting tourists into restaurants and others hawking mozzarella (pronounced something like 'muzarel') and cannoli, the famous Sicilian dessert. Many of those were actually waiters and restaurant staff from Mexico who occasionally whispered in Spanish to each other.

Absolutely no one cares about these details. It's here in the heart of what is left of Little Italy that the feast of San Gennaro is held every year, and which was expected to attract more than one million people from all over the world to participate in the annual Salute to the Patron Saint of Naples. Perhaps hyperbole, perhaps an overly optimistic forecast...but who knows?

A little away from the main bustle, on Mott Street, a restaurant singer was pleasing the crowd with old favorites, ranging from Domenico Modugno's Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (aka Volare) to Dean Martin's Everybody Loves Somebody. I waited for a song by the one and only Louis Prima...Just A Gigolo would've been just perfect...but I waited in vain, and anyway a woman singing anything by Louis would sound weird.

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

On Hester Street, there was a crowd gathering in front of a stall, listening to the patter of a man dressed as a boxing or wrestling referee. From what I gathered, the attraction was the presence of Bruno Sammartino, who would be performing mock matches with anyone who dared. It appears that Mr Sammartino is an Italian-born American retired professional wrestler, best known for being the longest-running champion of the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I saw no one volunteering.

Unfortunately, I won't be in NYC this weekend for the grand finale of San Gennaro's Feast. It'll be packed if last week end is any guide...I'll have to wait for next year.

For more of my New York City street photography and more, drop by The Leica File.

POV: Addicted To Auto-Focus

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy- All Rights Reserved (Leica M9/Elmarit 28mm. f2.8 1/750)

I'm not sure how other photographers and photojournalists feel, but I've become addicted to auto-focus, and it's an addiction I find extremely difficult to shake off.

When I'm in the mood, I roam the streets of New York City and try to capture something of its essence. When I do this I generally shoot from the hip to catch the candid moment, the posture, the fleeting expression...sometimes I'm successful, and many times I'm not; but that's what candid street photography is all about. The probability of catching these candid moments is quite low.

It's for that reason that I favor the Fuji X Pro-1. There's a lot to favor in the X Pro-1, but its (relatively) good auto-focus is one of its advantages. Yes, it goes to "sleep" once in a while and makes me miss the shot...and yes, its AF is not as quick as a DSLR, but it performs as well as I expected it to.

My other street camera is the Leica M9 that has no auto focus, and I struggle to choose it over the Fuji X Pro-1 when I'm off to the streets. Don't get me wrong. Its image quality is fantastic, and although I'm not exactly a Leica fan-boy, I still think it's a phenomenal camera with phenomenal lenses...and is perfect for candid street photography (among other uses, of course).

But I hesitate when I reach for it.

Yes, I know all about zone focusing, and I practice it whenever I can. But it frequently lets me down, partly because of my addiction to auto-focus (ie using my X Pro-1) and partly because the nature of the type of shooting from the hip photography is a hit and miss process.

I've thought of an analogy to this addiction..and it's like learning to drive with a stick-shift car versus an automatic. It's been said that the former makes you a better driver, so when I reach for the Leica, I comfort myself by thinking that shooting without the auto-focus has its merits sometimes, despite rueing that decision when I see the eventual results.

Now, where's my iPhone? :)

NewYorkers | Shīfu Shi Yan Ming

Update: It appears the producers of this video belatedly decided not to allow other blogs to embed the documentary. I think it's a tad silly but it's their prerogative. As I mentioned at the bottom of this post, the video can be viewed on its Vimeo page.

It's not difficult to acknowledge that New York City is the repository of some of the most interesting and diverses characters in the world...and this proves it.

One of my very favorite multimedia projects was the well known 'One In 8 Million' series by The New York Times which was a series of personal profiles of New Yorkers presented as two-minute audio slide shows with photographs by Todd Heisler. I regretted it came to an end after only a year...but I used some of the audio slideshows in my classes at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

I am very glad to have found a similar and very well done effort by New Yorkers; a project conceived by the partners (all native New Yorkers themselves) of Moonshot Productions (a full service production company in NYC). They describe the intent of this effort is to "create a recurring short documentary series highlighting New Yorkers from all walks of life told through the prism of each person’s vocation."

I was interested in the story of Shīfu Shi Yan Ming, a Shaolin Warrior Monk, who defected to the United States in 1992 and established a Shaolin temple, teaching philosophy and martial arts to youngsters and celebrities. The Shaolin temple teaches Chan philosophy through the disciplines of martial arts or action meditation such as Gongfu (Kung Fu) Taiji Quan (Tai Chi) and Qigong (Chi Kung).

More details on the Shaolin Warrior Monk is on The Atlantic. You can watch the documentary on Vimeo as well.

Two footnotes: New Yorkers also features Colin Huggins, the well known Piano Man, who I see often playing his instrument in Washington Square Park, and Phil Mortillaro, the locksmith, whose tiny store is in my neighborhood.

Yes, very well done! And an inspiration for my own NYC street photography and multimedia.

MediaStorm | Luv Shtick

"I do love her...but she's annoying."

"I don't take prisoners...I'm from the Middle East.

"Start spreading the Jews...er news"

I really loved this multimedia portrait of Dani Lev (aka Dani Luv), who's a musician, singer and comedian at Sammy’s Romanian Restaurant in New York. Dani likes to sing Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong classics as well as Israeli songs, and entertains the restaurant's patrons with his in-your-face shtick.

A wonderful narrative salted with typical New York Jewish humor and occasional trite cliches, Dani is also afflicted with ADD,  and has an on-off relationship with his girlfriend. So it's a funny and sad insight into the life of one in eight million NewYorkers. An authentic character...the type of person that makes New York what it is.

If this wonderful short multimedia piece doesn't make you want to drop your dinner plans and go to Sammy's, I don't know what will.

It was produced by Lukas Augustin, Jillian Kitchener, and JT Thomas who participated in a MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop.

As I said, extremely well done. I watched it a few times already. You will too. Guaranteed.