Oblivion with Bells

Even though it's a dimly lit camera phone pic, I decided that is my favorite view of the city. Taken from the 22nd floor of an office building in Tribeca, during an art opening for photographers who would shun my amateur use of a picture-taking device, the above photo shows Manhattan just after sunset, where Chinatown leaves way for an unobstructed view of Midtown.

Since it's the most desired, and therefore expensive, neighborhood in the entire city, I am obviously not the only one who thinks Tribeca has the best views of the town. The art opening itself was decent enough, even though I felt like the shortest person in the room, with everybody else looking like something really good off a '93 Calvin Klein runway.

A lot of the art was just silly (images of Mickey and Minnie Mouse humping) or irrelevant (pics that looked like they were ripped from a Victoria's Secret catalogue), but we were there for Adam's cousin, who had the best collection in the entire show. Based in LA, Chris places models in hyper realistic backgrounds, allowing the human and landscape beauty to compete freely with one another.

Take, for instance, this pic, of a girl standing in NYC, the action of the city enveloping her while she gives in, wearing sensible shoes, high heels in hand. In contrast, there is this LA woman. Chris said that he chose this model from her Internet submissions because she had a stunning portfolio. But when she showed up for the shoot, she was washed out, faded, pale with acne. So he set the photo in black and white, focusing more on the smog-engulfed hills.

But lesson learned: nothing ever transmits fully over the Internet. Like my camera phone pic, the image of the girl with the hose is much more captivating when seen in full view.