Hitting the Museums

The Metropolitan Museum in New York is a place that you can only do justice in hours - we were there for 3 hours and only managed to see about a 3rd of what was on offer, but here are a few of the highlights.

Ugolino and His Sons - I love the sensitivity of this boy's body language, the capturing of his slumping movement is extremely effective, you can feel the pain and weakness surging off the sculpture.

Leon Cogniet's Artist in His Room at the Villa Medici, part of the Rooms With A View exhibition, the motif of this exhibition is perfectly concluded by the German poet Novalis's following quote: "Everything at a distance turns into poetry: distant mountains, distant people, distant events: all becomes Romantic."

The Ancient European sculptures are made almost more fascinating by the damage that's occurred to them over the centuries:

 

The naturalism of this face is so perfectly destructed, and yet made beautiful, by the damage.

The loss of the legs but the fact that the toes have stayed almost entirely intact make this sculpture extremely interesting, and confusing to look at.

Having felt right in my element at the Met, I was a little apprehensive about MoMA as I have always felt like I didn't quite get modern art; however, I did enjoy taking photos of the art from different perspectives and angles, with some pleasing reults:

The name of this artist/piece escapes my, but this was a lucky shot - I love the way the woman is silhouetted against the painting, and the reflection on the floor makes it seem as though she is part of the piece.

Here I tried to capture the texture of Pollock's work.

I also found that the architecture and setting of the building made for some good shots:

We were so lucky to go on a sunny day; the effect of sunlight in this building is mesmerising.

I love the way the window frames the view.

In conclusion, hitting the museums was a lot of fun and allowed my inner (pretentious) tourist blossom.

New York, New York!

As an eighteenth birthday present I was lucky enough to go to New York with my mum. Now, I went with high expectations, but these expectations were not even half as good as New York itself. In the 4 days that I was there I experienced Manhattan and all its eclectic wonders: from the Art Museums, to Rangers Ice Hockey, to shows on Broadway and shopping on Fifth.

The cityscape view from 'The Other Press' publishing house.

The view from the 10th floor conference room in Flatiron building.

Radio City - I love the light in the fountain.

BROADWAY!

European sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum, the lighting is so beautiful and delicate that's like a stage.

Juxtaposition of Central Park and Fifth.

The Chrysler Building.

I would seriously recommend going to New York to anyone, from the nerdy sight-seers, to the most pretentious of tourists; it is the friendliest and most buzzing city I've ever been to and has so much to offer. Best of all was the $450 I received as compensation from Virgin Trans-Atlantic for being pushed onto a later flight - you see that's the one catch of New York, you need a silly amount of money to do it properly, I got lucky!