I was really getting bored with the static nature of my previous site, so I thought I would experiment with featuring a lot more new work and some writing and links to articles that I find interesting. So you could consider this the permanent new direction of robertwrightphoto.com. Or at least until another whim comes along.
The picture above is from a new series on Gowanus that I have been working on since I moved in December 2005. Turns out Gowanus (Indian for Stinky Garbage Everywhere) is Big Sky Country at least as far as Brooklyn is concerned. It is a low lying area (for lo-lifes?) full of brownfields and the eponymous canal you see above. That is the Kentile sign above and the F-train overpass for the non-new-yahwkers.
The part I like is the mix between urban and industrial, and the lack of people of course. Plenty of solitude available if you want it, although I suppose soon it will be overrun with American Apparel shops. The porter at my old address on Union street had a theory that bicycles were the harbinger of change: one might bicycle down a deserted/scary road whereas walking down it might not be a good idea. So the bicycle enables people to move into neighbourhoods they might not consider otherwise, and then the goods and services follow. I think there is a grain of truth to that theory.