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Interview With Franey Miller: How The 19 Year Old Photographer Broke Into The New York City Fashion Scene

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When graduating high school, most teenagers have absolutely no idea what they want to do with their lives. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, I always kind of found it unfortunate that, right out of high school, people are expected to declare a major and settle into the same job for the rest of their lives. Before you can legally buy a beer in the United States, you are asked to make one of the biggest decisions of your life. Those standards always seemed a little off to me. Then someone like Franey Miller comes along. Someone who thwarts the system, giving hope to all the dreamers out there.

Indeed an exception to the rule, Miller knew exactly what she wanted out of life before she even made it out of the 12th grade. For Miller, there was nothing else that could possibly entertain her more than being a photographer. After picking up a camera for the first time as an eight year old, Miller was hooked. Before she could drive a car, she was booking gigs. Photographing models after school and on weekends, Miller knew her future was in fashion photography.

“…there was a point where I decided I would never ever quit photography. What else would I do?…”

[Read More…]

Riveting Photos Of Retired Subway Cars Being Dropped Into The Ocean

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What actually happens to all those old subway cars that are retired from the New York City subway? One might suspect they’re sent off to the salvage yard where they’ll be scrapped for metal and spare parts before they arrive at their final resting place in some landfill outside of town. While some of that assumption is true, the subway cars actually go on to serve a meaningful (and environmentally friendly) life as artificial reefs on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Photographer, Stephen Mallon, a New York City local, has spent three years documenting the cause in which he has been witness to countless numbers of the stripped down cars approaching their final destiny as they take the plunge into the ocean. Mallon’s series, Next Stop Atlantic, documents the work of the Metropolitan Transit Authority in their effort to provide marine life with a new place to call home while keeping the large cars out of landfills. Once the cars land on the ocean floor, microorganisms will take to the structures creating a source of food for various types of sea life in addition to providing shelter for some aquatic animals. [Read More…]

71 Year Old Street Art Photographer Martha Cooper Returns To Photographing What Made Her Famous

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In 2013, Martha Cooper celebrated her 70th birthday in grand fashion. She had a shoot planned in Manhattan to photograph a massive street art mural. When she arrived to take the photos, she discovered the mural was actually a giant birthday card to her from two well known street artists, How and Nosm. The entire thing was a clever ploy to get her to her own surprise party. As word spread via social media about NYC’s latest graffiti installation, more and more people starting showing up to the party. Before long, there was a waiting line of well known writers, artists, photographers, and fans all waiting to have their photo taken with Cooper.

You see, though she’s a photographer of many things, Cooper has a reputation for being one of the best graffiti and street art photographers in the world. Getting her start as a photojournalist for the New York Post, after an intership with National Geographic, she was at the forefront of the graffiti revolution that painted New York City throughout the 1970’s and 80’s. She immereserd herself in the culture when it was still fresh and new, slowly building her reputation as the graffiti photographer.[Read More…]

Dancers Bare It All In Streets Of NYC For Striking Portrait Series: Dancers After Dark [NSFW]

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Jordan Matter, the photographer behind New York Times Bestseller, Dancers Among Us, has been hard at work on his next project, Dancers After Dark. Once again, Matter has teamed up with a handful of professional dancers to photograph them performing their artistic movements, but with Dancers After Dark, Matter takes a riskier approach. The dancers, all of whom are nude, take to the pre-dawn New York City streets where they slip into their birthday suits and strike a pose.

“There is no obvious reason why any of these amazing performers would volunteer for this project; it’s cold, it’s late, it’s dangerous, it’s illegal, it’s unpaid, and, of course, it’s NAKED,” Matter said.[Read More…]

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