March 2021 - City of New York
If you have your Picture This Photography NYC Calendar this is your March image “The City of New York.”
The City of New York has been changed beyond recognition in so many ways in the last 12 months, sometimes a fleeting glimpse is all that is there to remind us all of times gone by and what will hopefully be again.
This image was taken early one morning from the Ferry Terminal in Staten Island. I could see the sun starting to rise and was drawn to the golden glow on the boat and the composition of the boat leading to the familiar skyline.
It marks one year March 2021 that The City of New York (and indeed the rest of the world) unbelievably shut down due to the pandemic. It is amazing that one year has passed and how we all went and continue to go through so many phases of the new normal and every day is so surreal.
The city changed beyond recognition almost overnight: businesses shut down meaning no one was on the train or on the street, people left the city in droves, moving temporarily or permanently to suburbia upstate, back to their home state, or to another state: in short, anywhere but an overcrowded, expensive city like NYC. More than 80% more people left the city than moved here as the world changed the way it lived and worked. The city lost its energy & heartbeat and became unrecognisable as people became afraid of catching a deadly virus plus a huge increase in crime coupled with other quality-of-life concerns.
In New York the pandemic has shuttered 30%+ of small businesses, emptied schools, flattened theatres, shrunk offices and paused tourism as it turned daily events such as shopping, dining & walking the streets into hazards to be undertaken at your own risk.
Since then, as The City of New York is slowly showing some signs of life returning to a new normal however it remains like this image, within clear sight & touching distance but not quite reachable yet.