Times Square. Undated. By Paul Goldfinger from the NYC Street series. ©
KERMIT RUFFINS at Vaughans in NO.
Lady Liberty, yearning to be free, goes to the Port Authority and hops a bus to New Orleans. No more tired and poor in Manhattan.
July 17, 2014 by Blogfinger
5 Responses
I found the original photo file. The photograph was taken on September 20, 2012. Thanks to all of you who commented on this mini-mystery. I suspect that no one has ever looked so hard at one of my photographs as you guys who have been dabbling in foto-forensics. Check my post today describing why Eileen and I were in Times Square at 4:06 pm that day when that photo was taken ——Paul
Ogrover is right, the photo is later.The poster in the foreground is advertising the Times Square Museum which had (has?) on display the first LED powered New Years Eve Ball designed for the centennial of the first ball drop (December 31,1907).
The “Centennial New Years Eve Ball” referred to here is the one dropped on December 31, 2007 to celebrate that event, not the one dropped for the Millennium celebration. It was immediately retired and put on display in the Times Square Museum. So the photo must date from after 2008 at least.
Actually, I believe it’s a much later date. The revival of Evita at the Marquis didn’t happen until 2011 or 2012. Location looks near Duffy Square. I notice Ricky Martin in the cast and I’ve also spent many an hour standing in line at TKTS. So I’m familiar with that view.
I actually saw that centennial reference. I also saw, in the background on the left side, another individual in a similar costume. It won’t help with the date, but it might offer a clue as to what was going on.
Although I rarely give my photographs a title, I do try to say where the image was taken and when. In the days of making darkroom prints, I always wrote the date and place on the back of the print. Now, as Frank S points out, if you can retrieve a digital image file from the past, usually it will show the date and the time.
Although a photographer may forget when/where they took a foto it is interesting how you can sometimes still figure it out. In this case trash can refers to upcoming centenial ball. So my guess is it was taken fall of 1999. One can also date fotos by clothes fashions, cars, hairstyles, etc. Of course now a days many digital cameras have date(even place via GPS) as part of their metadata.