JPG: Stories: Photo Essay: Good bye to New York

Good bye to New York

By Tom Hall

20 Jul 2009

This is not going to be a soppy story about a broken heart and feeling sorry for myself but it will be a story about my love affair with New York, the people who live in it, the sounds, sights and smells and what makes New York, The Big Apple.

After 7 years of traveling back and forth to New York to visit my ex girlfriend I had been in a relationship with for 10 years and then visiting the one that I thought would be the love of my life and the woman I would live with for the rest of my life (how naive :) ) in the US, it came to an end.

Breaking up is probably for most people either a blessing or the one of the most painful experiences to endure and cope with. For me it isn't any different and it will take quite some time for me to get back on the emotional straight and narrow. But also my love affair with New York has come to a stop. Seeing the city on tv, in movies and in advertisements now generates a very bitter and painful reflection of what my goals were, what I was willing to do to get there and how I saw the future. But life, is a rollercoaster ride or an easy to wade stream, it all depends on how you experience it and it's incidents, adventures and all that is part of life.

New York has become my home, even more then where I live during the time I wasn't in New York. The people, the sights, sounds, smells and the city in general can't be compared to any other city. New York is The Big Apple and I tasted big parts of it differently then most people who are not New Yorkers. I will miss the people I met, the friends I made and the day to day life of the city.

Having spent a great part of the last 7 years or so in both the posh area of East Midtown Turtlebay and the rougher and confrontational Washington Hights on the Upper West Side it has given me a good and representative experience of life in New York.

Having walked through most Manhattan and big parts of the other boroughs has truly made me appreciate the wide variety of cultures, foods, sights and sounds and the general look and feel of The Big Apple. It will never be the same for me and will always remind me of the ones that got away and about the city that made me do more with my photography and change my goals in life.

I hope you enjoy the images and maybe you can relate to it in some way.