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Showing posts from April, 2023

City Gardens: Trenton's Lost Punk Rock Mecca

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The building seemed to sag against the Trenton sky, its walls leaning in a way that looked both tired and dangerous. I was driving, searching for a lunch spot after a morning spent exploring the city's industrial skeletons, when I saw it. A questionable choice, maybe, but curiosity is a powerful guide. I pulled over. Getting inside was one of the sketchiest entrances I’ve ever attempted. But once my feet were on the dusty floor, the danger faded. An enormous space stretched before me. It was sparse, cleaned out. My footsteps echoed where a stage once stood, a fact I’d later confirm in a NNKH YouTube video about the building’s past life as an underground punk club. The video showed a vibrant scene, an electric place. But the ghosts of that life were mostly gone. The long, rounded bar, where thousands of hands must have slapped down crumpled bills, had vanished. The dust-coated wine and shot glasses that once lined its shelves were gone, too. The club’s glittering crown jewel, a l...
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Colt Gun Mill & Allied Textile Printing (ATP)

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  The Patent Arms Manufacturing Company, one of Paterson, New Jersey's earliest industries, lies in ruins beneath the majestic Great Falls of the Passaic River. As tourists from all over the world flock to witness the Falls' breathtaking beauty, a monument to Samuel Colt, the inventor of the Colt revolver gun, languishes in a state of disrepair. Samuel Colt's newly patented repeating firearm became a vital tool on the American frontier, and the Patent Arms Manufacturing Company produced roughly 5,000 musket rifles and revolvers. The Gun Mill, a four-story structure, was erected on the original site of a failed nail factory and rolling mill. In a nod to its purpose, the Gun Mill property was adorned with wooden gun picket fences, and even a weathervane shaped like a gun capping the belltower. However, poor sales led to the company's demise around 1842, and it was taken over by partners John Ryle and G.W. Murray, founders of Allied Textile Printing (ATP), who began produc...
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Location: Colt Gun Mill
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1969 Buick Electra 225

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Vacant Holdings #1

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   Starting a photo series showcasing the varying facades and abandoned real estate I come across on a daily basis. In the past year and a half, I have been documenting a good set of them and I wanted to showcase them since they are starting to collect dust in my photo archives. Here is the first one in the series and hopefully a continuing series well into the future.
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Trump Arraignment Day

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  Today was a very special day for the "Teflon Don" in New York's Lower Manhattan Court where he pleaded not guilty to 35 counts of felonies. Outside a mix of supporters and his critics held court across the street at the park milling about as news media personnel stood up under the lights and broadcasted live ad nauseam to their respective 24-hour news channels. Reps. Marjorie Greene Taylor and George Santos ran out of town when she forgot that a partisan crowd that leans left would not be socially amicable to right-wing conspiracies, idolization, and vitriol. We New Yorkers like substance just like our cream cheese and bagels. They soon hightailed it out of town to jeers and whistles. Inside and around the Manhattan building, people of all stripes, flavors, political leanings, religious zealots, and social media people looking for their five minutes of fame milled about and made their passionate statements and protests. You could find everyone under the sun inside and o...
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Making Fujifilm Film-Inspired Looks Using ChatGPT

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Neponsit Hospital in Rockaway, Queens. Walled-off cellphone users graffiti by an unknown artist. I recently tried my hand at AI tech by using ChatGPT to create film simulation recipes for my Sony A7R IV Picture Profile. After reading about Fujifilm Film Simulation Recipes on PetaPixel , I decided to give it a shot and was impressed with the results. Although I typically don't shoot in black and white, I recognize the power it can bring to a photo. Black and white photography can be incredibly impactful, as evidenced by Devin Allen 's historical and poignant 2015 Time Magazine cover that captured a pivotal moment in the Black Lives Matter movement and protests. Now, thanks to AI tech startup innovator and disruptor ChatGPT, photographers can prompt the platform to create film simulation recipes based on past great film stock without the cost of film cartridges. The results are astonishing and intuitive, offering valuable insights into color temperature matching, clarity, contras...
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Inside the Abandoned Rockaway Metal Products Factory in Queens (Photos)

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Rockaway Metals Products (RMP) began as a sheet metal fabrication factory beginning in 1961. RMP occupied the site from 1971 to 1987 leaving a plethora of hazardous waste materials onsite. From 1990 to 2004 the building housed various tenants which even included an auto repair shop. Rockaway Metals a manufacturer of filing cabinets and other metal products closed down in 1987. It was leased a few years ago to different owners who did not manage the 4.85-acre parcel. The 155,000-square-foot building has long been an eyesore and trouble in the neighborhood since its closure. A coastal storm in March 2018 blew debris materials to adjacent properties. Rockaway Metals was acquired by Nassau County in 1995 by tax deed. The county has held onto the property for 22-plus years. In February 2011, the site was damaged by fire and condemned soon thereafter. For more in-depth legal ownership of the property, you can read more below in the source list under U.S. v. 175 INWOOD ASSOCIATES LLP. ...
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Inside the Abandoned St. Michael and St. Edward Church in Brooklyn (Photos & History)

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For weeks, I had been orbiting the perimeter of the impending demolition of the Church of St. Michael and St. Edward, a once revered church in the heart of Fort Greene, like a moth drawn to a flame. The neighborhood, a patchwork of tight project housing, seemed indifferent to the fate of this historic edifice. The intel I had received suggested that entry was as simple as scaling a wooden fence, yet the timing had never felt right. Until one day, it did. With a mission in New Jersey looming, I knew it was now or never. The demolition was advancing at a startling pace, the church's twin steeples already reduced to rubble. The skeletal remains of timber beams and rusted steel frames peeked out from the ruins, a testament to the relentless march of progress. Summoning a surge of courage, I seized a moment of quiet in the bustling housing project and vaulted over the fence. My heart pounded in my chest as I slipped unnoticed into the church grounds. The once grand entrance now stood as...
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Inside the Abandoned Horsman Doll Factory in Trenton

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  You’ve got to move when the chance is right. That’s something I keep telling myself—but just as often, I forget it. Or ignore it. And then I end up learning the same lesson all over again. It happened on a quiet afternoon when I pulled up to the old Horsman Doll factory. The place has long been abandoned, but it still holds stories—ones I try to capture through my lens. The main gate was slightly ajar. Not wide open, but just enough for me to slip through with my gear. It was one of those rare opportunities. But across the street, half-hidden behind a rundown house, a group of men sat drinking and shouting over each other. The kind of scene you don't want to get caught up in—especially alone, carrying expensive camera equipment. I hesitated. I debated. I bailed. My gut told me to walk away, so I did. I figured I could find another way in. I circled the block, hoping for a back entrance or even a broken window low enough to climb through. I found one window that looked possible—bu...
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Fallout TV Series Filming Locations: A Complete Guide to Every NY & NJ Site

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A desolate sand swept Fallout Santa Monica Pier. Discover the captivating locales of Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV series as Lucy, Maximus, Moldaver, and the dreaded Ghoul vie for the Vault-Tec cold fusion relic. Filmed across various iconic spots in New York and New Jersey, the series brings the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, California wasteland to life. Here’s a closer look at the real-life locations featured in the show. Let me know in the comments below how much you loved the show. Were you surprised by the New York-centric locations? Episode 1 (“The End”) In a gripping and unforgettable episode, we witness Lucy emerging from the subterranean depths of Vault 33 centuries ahead of schedule, driven by an urgent quest to rescue her father, Hank, the Overseer of Vault 33. This dramatic turn of events follows the brutal infiltration of Vault 32 by Moldaver’s raiders, who cunningly disguised themselves as the already deceased rioting inhabitants of the vault. The story's turmoil begins ...
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Inside Yonkers' Abandoned Glenwood Power Plant (Photos & History)

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A former coal-fired power plant in Yonkers sits quietly by the waterfront, its redevelopment ambitions repeatedly running aground against community resistance and logistical hurdles. Once an industrial hub, the site has spent years in limbo, tangled in unrealized visions of transformation and contention with local stakeholders. The most recent development proposal called for a 157,000-square-foot mixed-use office space. However, the Yonkers Planning Board faced strong pushback from residents. Parking became a flashpoint, with the community voicing concerns over how the new project would accommodate vehicles. Efforts by the developer to secure parking access at nearby Trevor Park and the John F. Kennedy Marina were met with such resistance that the plans were scrapped altogether. Adding to the tensions, critics took issue with the property owner's financial contributions to the city. Many residents felt the developer had been avoiding paying a fair share of Yonkers' property tax...
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