Opening doors at United Palace Theatre

Mike Fitelson | May 14, 2012 - 1:16 pm

Somehow I’ve been so busy that I haven’t posted to my blog for over a month.

That seems hard to believe, but during the next couple of weeks I hope to catch up with all my myriad projects and post them online. After the dust settles we’ll see everything that I’ve been up to.

For starters, here is one project that I have been involved in: helping to lay the foundation for an arts and culture center at the United Palace Theatre on Broadway at W. 175th Street.

Have you been inside? It’s breathtaking. Built in 1930 as one of the last great vaudeville houses, in a style that is described as Moorish/Rococo, the Palace was quickly turned into a movie house. Then in 1969 Reverend Ike purchased it for his church and painstakingly preserved it, at the same time many of the other great movie houses were being carved up into soulless multiplexes.

It seats around 3,200 people, considered the third largest venue in Manhattan. At the height of Rev. Ike’s popularity he would attract 5,000 people over several services on a single Sunday afternoon. The theatre also hosts concerts: I’ve seen Iggy Pop and Bob Dylan there.

Since Rev. Ike passed away a few years ago, the church – and the building – have passed on to his son, Bishop Xavier. It is his vision to build an arts center that is driving what we are calling the “next chapter” at the Palace.

(The above photo shows workers taking down the fence that has long surrounded the building, a moment of deep symbolism for the neighborhood.) [...]

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Talking about “The Art of Community”

Mike Fitelson | March 26, 2012 - 12:25 pm

For the last several months I have been trying to figure out how the influences in my life intersect:

  • Photography
  • Anthropology
  • Journalism
  • Northern Manhattan
  • Community

Rather than just idly meditating, I actually had to make sense of these jumbled thoughts because I was scheduled to deliver a talk titled “The Art of Community” at the Morris-Jumel Mansion on Saturday, March 24.

Nothing like working toward a deadline to motivate a lucid thought process.

On one hand, just preparing for the talk made this a useful exercise, forcing me to spend several days last week methodically figuring it all out, finding the commonalities in my work. Even if I never spoke it was a worthwhile endeavor.

On the other hand, conducting the talk in person allowed me to hear what these ideas sound like in the real world so I could ferret out the more ridiculous ones. Nothing like standing up in front of an audience to fully vet an idea.

The photography project I am working on mirrors my efforts to figure it all out. It combines several different projects that I have started over the years uptown – “Setting,” “Character,” “Theme” – that each explore a different branch of photography: landscape, portraiture, abstract fine art. A few weeks ago I came up with a working title that seems to sum up this project: “A Story About Washington Heights (and Inwood, and New York City, and America, and Me and You, and Us.)”

The talk put all of this in context and began to set the stage for the next part of the project: “Plot.”

Lots of great folks showed up Saturday, around 35 people total. About half were strangers and half were family members or friends.

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“Art of Community” talk and “Muse” exhibit this Sat. March 24 at Morris-Jumel Mansion

Mike Fitelson | March 19, 2012 - 9:59 pm

I’ve got a couple of photography projects at the Morris-Jumel Mansion that begin this Saturday, March 24 from 2-4pm.

I will give a talk called “The Art of Community” from 2-4pm that is my first attempt to try to weave together my interests in photography, anthropology, Northern Manhattan, and the Morris-Jumel Mansion, the oldest house in Manhattan.

It will include the initial photographs from a four-part series I have been working on about Northern Manhattan, including the first public showing of the portraits from the “Message Delayed” project.

The Mansion is also hosting a stripped-down version of “Northern Manhattan as Muse,” my portraits of local artists who use Washington Heights and Inwood for inspiration. The exhibit will be up for a couple of months.

My talk on “The Art of Community” is Saturday, March 24 from 2-4pm at the Morris-Jumel Mansion, 65 Jumel Terrace. Please call for reservations: 212-923-8008. Cost is $5, free for members of the Mansion.

The closest train is the C at 163rd Street.

Google Map.

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Figuring out the “Art of Community” at the Morris-Jumel Mansion

Mike Fitelson | March 5, 2012 - 11:57 am
A Cubist montage of the Morris-Jumel Mansion

A Cubist montage of the Morris-Jumel Mansion

The arts continue to become more intrinsically threaded into the fabric of Northern Manhattan. Multiple groups have held arts-related fundraisers for the businesses that were burned out in Inwood earlier this year. People’s Theatre Project and Word Up Bookstore continue to astonish in the ways they use the spoken and written word to draw people closer together by drawing out their individual stories. Businesses like Le Chéile and Apt 78 host regular arts events to attract customers. Don’t even get me started on all that NoMAA does.

In the last year or so it’s dawned on me that this is the thing that fascinates me the most: how art – or anything where people find commonality – can become a beacon that people rally around to form community, no matter how fleeting.

It’s what drove me at the Manhattan Times, what motivated me to co-found the Uptown Arts Stroll, and why I graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in cultural anthropology.

At the same time, I’ve always been very keenly aware of my personal tug-of-war between being an individual and a member of a community. My natural state is to be a loner.

I’ve been trying to resolve all of this with a unifying theory about the overlapping roles art, photography, writing, community, and individuality play in my life.

In two weeks I’m going to start publically exploring where this line of thinking is taking me (and us).

On Saturday, March 24 from 2-4pm at the Morris-Jumel Mansion I’ll make a presentation called the “Art of Community.” (Details below.)

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The arts uptown: The more something changes . . .

Mike Fitelson | February 16, 2012 - 10:43 am

It’s been over eight years since I first started helping to organize the arts community in Northern Manhattan. That was before the first Uptown Arts Stroll, before the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, before it became crystal clear that there are local artists itching to showcase their work uptown and an audience hungry to enjoy it.

Out of nowhere, the arts started booming in Washington Heights and Inwood. Now, as an artistic community it feels like we are on the verge of great things.

At least that’s the narrative that I’ve repeated to myself as momentum has built year-by-year.

I found out last Friday, February 10, that’s only half the story.

It was a funny day. A meeting that morning seemed to confirm all the work that the arts community has expended over the years to, for lack of a better term, put ourselves on the city’s cultural map. That was followed a couple of hours later by a second meeting that put everything into a new perspective and reminded me of the fragile connections that any community endeavor is built upon.

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The Millrose Games at the Armory

Mike Fitelson | February 13, 2012 - 4:00 pm

I’ve photographed many events at the vast Armory on W. 168th Street over the years, from a Halloween party to an Independence Day celebration by the Mexican Consulate.

Strangely enough, I had never photographed a track event there.

On Saturday, February 11 I shot the beginning of the 105th Millrose Games. It was the first time the event had been held at the Armory after 86 years at Madison Square Garden. Judging from the reaction of the crowd – and how close you are to the thundering action – this will be a good fit for some time.

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Not just another bat mitzvah

Mike Fitelson | February 3, 2012 - 10:26 am

One of the things I love about event photography is that no matter how many weddings or celebrations you cover, each one is a unique experience with the opportunity to make singular images.

Take the bat mitzvah party I photographed for the Cohler-Esses family a few weeks ago. It had some of the same ritualized elements from every other bat mitzvah I’ve ever been to. It was even held at Congregation Ansche Chesed on W. 100th Street, where I have photographed numerous times over the years.

But the photographs from the Cohler-Esses party still look distinct from all the others I’ve done over the years. I think it is because each event gathers a different group of people, each attendee contributing a slightly different personality to the overall experience. Expressive faces always stand out in a crowd.

The Cohler-Esses party was characterized by exuberant dancing – everyone got into the act, young and old alike. The customary hora dance and chair raising gave me no indication that there would be hours of dancing to follow. It’s like all the attendees were practicing to be contestants on “Dancing with the Stars.”

At the center of it was the girl of honor, Ayelet who kept on rocking, popping, and heel-kicking, all the time smiling from ear to ear.

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What happens in Vegas

Mike Fitelson | February 1, 2012 - 10:51 pm

It’s almost been a year since I got this photo and it hasn’t yet seen the light of day (pun totally intended).

Last March I was out in Vegas with some friends I hadn’t seen in many years. Being one of the two East Coasters on the trip, I was awake every morning around 5 a.m. And bored. On Saturday I decided to check out the sunrise on the strip.

We were staying at the Wynn, which is right on the edge of the modernized section of town. Outside the hotel I found the sun gloriously reflecting off the tower of the Trump casino, bouncing around creating some crazy shadows. I held the camera to my eye for a couple of minutes waiting for something to happen. That’s when this dude entered the frame. I couldn’t tell if his night was ending or his day was beginning. He was heading toward the older section of the strip, adding another layer to his story.

Not sure what got me thinking about this photo. It might be because I’m close to finalizing plans to meet up with the gang this summer in Denver, or that I just watched the movie “Swingers” for the thousandth time. Or maybe it’s that line from “Ocean’s 11″: “Ted Nugent called: he wants his shirt back.”

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The youngest photographer

Mike Fitelson | February 1, 2012 - 12:22 pm

With apologies to Christopher Auger-Dominguez, DJ Boy, and Paul Lomax, I believe the best photograph taken of me in recent months is this one, snapped by none other than Helen, my three-and-a-half old daughter.  I had just started playing with a new D700 with a 50mm and she demanded to get to play with it also. It’s been a long time since I’ve looked that relaxed and, yes, happy in a photo. I wonder what she’d charge to assist me on my next shoot.

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The people that you meet

Mike Fitelson | January 31, 2012 - 10:13 pm

Julia MartinezI was out on W. 181st Street today engaged in that old chestnut of journalism – the man in the street interview.

The Washington Heights Business Improvement District is publishing another in a series of special sections in the Manhattan Times that is focused on the “I ♥ 181 St” campaign that we cooked up a year ago. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner we had the perfect tie-in for me to ask people what they love about the commercial strip. (Pick up the Manhattan Times on Wed., Feb. 8 to read all the responses.)

I probably did my first man in the street interview 18 years ago for The Montclarion in Oakland, CA. Couldn’t tell you how many I’ve done since then – 200? 300? – although only a handful of them have been for the Manhattan Times.

I’ve always enjoyed doing the interviews, the opportunity to interact one-on-one with the public. Being in the trenches.

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one, but it was easy to fall back into the routine. You have to hook a passerby’s attention with as few words as possible, get them to pause long enough for a quote and photo. It’s important to not sound like you’re selling something. And you can’t get angry when they ignore you. I long ago learned to always say something nice to the people who just walk by. That way I don’t end up saying something nasty.

The thing that’s changed over the years is that so many more people are plugged in to their music players and cell phones in public. That actually makes the job easier since those are the people who are generally less likely to stop to have a conversation with a stranger. Headphones are like a sign that says “don’t bother me.” They weed themselves out, saving the interviewer time.

Today was easy. The spring-like weather didn’t hurt. I had 10 good conversations (including one person who declined to be photographed) in about an hour.

I love the fact that you never know who you’ll meet. I could have spent hours talking to the last person I interviewed, Julia Martinez (who is pictured above). After she told me what she loves about W. 181st Street I asked what her job was. I wasn’t sure what kind of answer I’d get because she had told me her English wasn’t very good and I wasn’t sure if she was retired.

Taxi driver, she said, adding that she prefers to drive at night since that’s when there is less traffic so you can pick up more fares.

“I make more money at night,” she said.

I would have never guessed that in a million years. Another reason to love W. 181st Street.

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