Manhattan

The trip from Orlando to Manhattan was uneventful, apart from an hour long cab ride from the airport to the hotel. Three weeks ago, when I came here with Smriti, we just zoomed to our hotel in 20 minutes. Not today. On top of that the cabdriver dropped me off at the wrong Hilton hotel. But walking to the right hotel turned out to be very pleasant, with the weather being around the 50ies and snow still piled up on the sides. Upon taking a walk around the block I stumbled upon the International Center for Photography and to my surprise found an exhibition from the Light couple about the delapilated situation in the Virginia coalmine towns. A couple of weeks ago I heard an interview with them on public radio and the story stuck in my mind. The photographs are comparable to those of my favorite photographer: Lange's pictures of the 1920 dustbowl situation. It is unbelievable that today in America 15% of all citizens are still living below the poverty level of around $9500 per year! They literally live from the land (and in the dirt). I just can't get it out of my mind.... www.coalhollow.org