Picturing New York was outstanding. A beautifully curated, beautifully framed selection of some of the best photos you’re ever likely to see in one place. The photos just crackled with the energy of New York; its architecture, its poverty, its wealth, its ever-changing diversity and the lives of the people who have called it home in the last 150 years. I can’t really sum it up better than the note on the exhibition from the IMMA site:

“The photographs reveal New York as a city of contrasts and extremes through images of towering blocks and tenements, party-goers and street-dwellers, hurried groups and solitary individuals. Picturing New York demonstrates the symbiosis between the city’s progression from past to present and the evolution of photography as a medium and as an art form.”

Great photography excites me so much, because it asks me to look at faces, bodies and situations around me in a way I just don’t ordinarily. I kind of think, wow - so this is what happens every instant of every day, what a pleasure to be able to stop and look. It has nothing (or very little) to do with the camera, and everything about being open to the life around you. That is just great to be reminded of from time to time. Thanks IMMA and MOMA (and Karl Podesta who paid for the tickets, and then the coffee).