I walked decidedly toward the Grace Church to set up a shot and find strangers to photograph for Day 23. The Grace Church has always been a source of great nostalgia for me as it represents my early days of living and walking around New York, it was a few blocks from my first apartment on Bleecker and Broadway. At the time I was reading “The Alienist,” by Caleb Carr. The book took place circa 1896 and the main characters had their headquarters at 808 Broadway, next door to the Grace Church. So it was mentioned often. The book features Theodore Roosevelt, police commissioner of NYC at the time, and a team of crime investigators who use fingerprinting and psychology, cutting edge at the time, to solve a series of murders that take place across the city. The streets and now landmarks of New York City are described in great detail, the first murder takes place on an unfinished Williamsburg Bridge. I was fascinated. My roommate had a book on his shelf called “New York, Then and Now”, which featured early photographs from 1875 to 1925 contrasted with 1976. I walked the streets of New York in 1997 with the book in tow, checking the photos and marveling at what changed and what didn’t. The Grace Church is still there and 808 Broadway now houses the New York Costumes shop.
When I reached the Church, Liad and Emelia were sitting on the steps, already nicely framed by the large doors. As I was asking to take their photo, two other friends popped up. They were all visiting from Israel and thought it a little funny to be photographed in front of a Church, but agreed to the artistic coincidence.
Name: Yaniv / Liad / Emelia / Secret Rabbi Age: 28 / 27 / 29 / ? Profession: Student of Politics / Student of Econ / Import Manager / It’s a secret Relationship to each other: Friends, just met, used to date Nationality/Origin: Israeli
How / where / when did you meet: Thru mutual friends, (then after a few laughs) we (Yaniv and Emelia) used to date, and Emelia and Liad just met.
What does love mean? Love is… The Sky / Giving, the meaning of Judaism is giving / Beautiful, Understanding / Giving, but not material stuff, giving without consequences, not in order to get something back, get happy by giving.
The secret Rabbi, works for a secret agency and has to stay “off the grid” so I promised not to show his face.
Yaniv, Liad, Emelia and the Secret Rabbi in front of the Grace Church.