Only in New York City can you get the chance to be an angel, stand in the middle of a busy street, and have almost no reaction from passers by or oncoming traffic.
It was an interesting request I received from my friend Laurie Rubin to come meet her and the awesome Alan Shapiro in front of the Javits center during this year’s Photo Plus Expo. I can’t remember the details of the text message but something about photographing angels in that message intrigued me. PPE is a crazy time and most every minute of each day is filled with meetings, public speaking, dinners, and chance encounters with friends and colleagues. I missed out meeting up with Alan and Laurie on the first day of the shoot but just made it on the second day between scheduled meetings and commitments.
You look like an Angel
Walk like an Angel
Talk like an Angel
But I got wiseYou’re the Devil in disguise
~Bernie Baum, Bill Gant, Florence Kaye
I love Alan’s work and had not seen him or Laurie while in NYC so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to go catch up with friends. Since I had no real details about what Alan had in mind, I was stunned to see these giant angel wings when I arrived at our arranged meeting spot.
Are there angels among us? My answer is ‘Absolutely.’ I have seen them firsthand.” ~Alan Shapiro
Anyone who knows me will immediately see how appropriate those angel wings look on me. All that is missing is a halo ;-)
I wasn’t the only angel in New York that day though. I was honoured to be one of the photographers that Alan photographed in the wings, especially when you consider the fact that legends like Art Wolfe and Joe McNally were some of the other photographers that posed for Alan during PPE.
We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another. ~Luciano De Crescenzo
Check out Laurie’s blog post on the Angels among us project over at the Macphun site and you can see the whole series of Angel photos in this online gallery.
I can’t wait to see the final series of images when Alan is done with his Angels project. I’ll keep you posted on that :-)
Thanks Alan for adding some uniqueness to this year’s Photo Plus Expo!
All photos in this post ©Alan Shapiro
I believe in Angels among us and most important I have encountered them many many times in real life. Throughout my journey in Europe for one month, I have encountered at least one angel in each country. When I stepped on the train from London to Brussels, an Belgium angel came to give me a hand for my luggage, he was a young chef telling me his wonderful story; when I arrived at Brussels city, I met two angels from Israel, they were brother and sister. The first night, the sister and I went to a theater, they allowed us in without a ticket, I could not understand a word, but I laughed when they laughed; from Brussels to Amsterdam, I met two angels, one from Turkey and one from Greece, they just wanted to take a photo with me; from Amsterdam to Stockholm, an angel from Sweden invited me to her home to meet her mother, the mother and daughter offered me bed, breakfast, lunch, dinner; in Paris, a French angel showed me the way to Louvre to see ‘Mona Lisa’ and two angels mother and daughter from America offered me to share the table with them; when I see a feather on my desk, my chair etc etc , I know the angels have visited me :D
And I know an Angel is coming to meet me soon :D
Is this real? Nice photography, I am very impressed from these snaps.
Many people believe that angels are among us. I like the blog very much. The blogs are really interesting. The photographs are really outstanding.
What a wonderful blog post and glorious photographs !!
I think we can all be angels to each other, but we can also choose to be selfish egoists (a devil) against each other. It’s a simple choice that we have the opportunity to choose daily during our life … the choice often depends on how we feel in the moment …
My view is that angels are always around us, even if we don’t know about it. It could be a friend who doesn’t attend, but that appears when life has its hollows, or an unknown person who helps us in a situation that we ourselves aren’t able to solve alone.
If it is invisible angels, who send these angelic people to us, is another question that I let remain open :)
I haven’t experienced them in a supernatural sense, but I do believe in them. They guide and protect us…!