why i make photographs

as a pleasure

as a practice

as a meditation

as an homage

for my sanity

for my delight

because i must

because i have to

to teach from

to learn from

to look at

to remember

Alternate Lincolns

This pair of Lincoln bookends came from a tag sale in Connecticut, the home of an old man who had collected Civil War memorabilia. Obviously, they were made  from two different molds, and one had been dropped at one time. Like many fraternal twins, they are very different from each other. 

The Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park

Childhood memories and medieval time immemorial in the stone walls.

High up in the heights of Manhattan schist, where the subway is so far underground one takes an elevator down to it.

A castle built by the rich, the plundering the of 13^th Century, pillar by pillar, stone by stone, statue by statue. Not to mention the tapestries to warm the walls.
The rooms feel heavy. Maybe it is the centuries of religious prayers, guilt, hope and fears that took place around the altars and objects on display.

But the Merode Room, a revelation and a lightness, a spiritual experience. The Master of Flemalle, indeed. 1428 altarpiece. So so finely seen, so finely painted. 

That candle, just extinguished by the angel, a wisp of smoke remaining. 

Marking the moment just past the immaculate conception, forever.

Being in its presence is divine, even with the thin glass separating its soul from my breath of now.

RIP Prof. Irwin Corey

Irwin Corey "The World's Greatest Authority"

Photographed June 21, 2012, NYC

© Ellen Wallenstein

from "Respecting My Elders" 2013

died February 2, 2017

102 years old

102 years young

Aviary

A Variety of Bird Photos

Waiting Room, Washington Square North

 Leach Hollow Road

Rooftop, New York Central Art Supply 

Bird Hovering, East Harlem

Spybird (for Sherilyn Behr)

Edward Albee, R.I.P.

Edward Albee, American Playwright

March 12, 1928 - September 16, 2016

His advice:

"What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?"

"I have been both overpraised and under praised.
I assume by the time I finish writing - and I plan to go on writing until I'm ninety or gaga- it will all equal itself out....You can't involve yourself with the vicissitudes of fashion or critical response."

"Be useful. Be useful. Do something that matters with your life."





Edward Albee, NYC, June 1, 2010.

Photograph © Ellen Wallenstein

from "Respecting My Elders"

ISBN 978-0-615-74021-8

http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/530767

Assorted & miscellaneous square photos

Taken on my travels through NYC

 psychic advisor

 sphinx

post no bills

 chuck close's studio, bond street

construction worker

 graduation gown, east 8th street

yellow buildings, harlem

garden figure, LES

the high line

graffiti, tree & shadow