Found Photo Follow Up! They Were Heroes!

I posted this photo I found in a huge lot of photographs I came across about a year an a half ago. The strange juxtapostion between metal stoner dudes and fire truck intrigued me as well as made me laugh for some reason. It was one of my faves out of the over a thousand photos that i had.

Well guess what? Someone saw the photo and recogonized the guy on the right, contacted him and then he contacted me!

When I originally posted this my photo description was:

"Do you think these guys are hipsters or just fireman wannabes?"

Ends up there WAS a reason they were posed in front of a fire truck. They saved an elderly lady from her burning apartment 22 years ago on Russell Street in Greenpoint.

Read the words straight Tommy Scudiero (the guy on the right with the fat laces) mouth here!

"June 6th 1985. Me and Dave Monat just ran into a burning building on Russell street and saved an old lady. We ran up the fire escape. He had a fire extinguisher and we went to break the window and Dave squirted the fire extinguisher in my face . That picture was taken by the Greenpoint Gazette."

Here is the photo from the Greenpoint Gazette!


I just KNEW there was a story behind this photo and thanks to the keen observation skills of someone who grew up in Greenpoint and stumbled onto F.I.B one day, this mystery was solved! Thank you!

Read the original post about the photograph here!

A Dying Art.

Another photo from my Greenpoint/Williamsburg collection.

Click here for some more.

Mystery in my closet continues....

Park Slope Plane Crash of 1960
Last month I found a bunch of amazing old photos in my closet, amongst them was is this test strip of images of the Park Slope Plane Crash of 1960!! Yup, two planes crashed down right on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. I am still researching all these photos. This one is the only one that is post-1950 and taken by a photographer named R. Nelson, the rest are all by R. Raffius. I am still trying to decide what to do them all and haven't found much information other than that R. Raffius worked for Keystone Images a company that took photos of exotic locals all over the world. Japanese Geishas? Japanese ships? Surfers on Waikiki Beach, Hawaii! Note the absence of hotels!

Anyway this is still but a mere taste of the photos that are all so well developed and interesting, I've got hundreds of images. If anyone out there knows of any collectors of this type of thing, send them my way, summer has not been kind financially to F.I.B although everything else is aces!!!

To see more images click here!
To read about just how this all came about, click here!

My closet is looking amazing by the way, still working at it though!

What's The Hook? Go Find Out!

To follow up on my rant about that hideously colorblind article about Red Hook. I would like to inform you that what the New York Time's SHOULD of covered was the What's the Hook? photography exhibit which features photographs of people who are far more interesting. I spoke to the mastermind of this exhibit, Harriet Zucker while checking it out. The exhibit was an open call for photographs taken during the span of one week in Red Hook last summer. Harriet also gave neighborhood kids and senior citizens plastic cameras to use and I have to say some of these photos give the most intimate portraits. The exhibit is up tomorrow and next weekend only at the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition at the fab Beard Street Warehouse in Red Hook and there are also some photos behind the Fairway.The warehouse which is from the civil war era and smells deliciously of old seasoned wood has amazing views by the way!

Hey LADY!!!

Read all about the "What's the Hook?" here.

Also, Harriet is going to do it again, starting tomorrow you can snap away and send her your pics for next years exhibit, look at the website for details!!

P.S.A: Anybody have any photos of Brooklyn Botanicas?

Crusader Candle Factory on Nevins Street.

I recently received a request to shout out into the blogosphere regarding photographs of Botanicas. There is a research project going on and any photos would be appreciated. Specifically, San Antonio Religious Articles which was formerly at 192 Smith St. The building got torn down (what else is new?). So if you got some to share, contact me here at lisannem (at) gmail (dot) com and I shall get you in touch with the interested party.

And since I just featured local Gowanus manufacturing business, Crusader Candle (they make the religious candles that you find in botanicas, bodegas and supermarkets) I would like to take this moment to remind you that the Gowanus Transformations exhibit is still up at the Brooklyn Historical Society and will be up until August 24th. This exhibit documents manufacturing past and present around the Gowanus Canal. It was recently written about in City Limits magazine. This exhibit is quite timely as Brooklyn is losing it's manufacturing areas rapidly due to the construction of "luxury" condos. Try and check it out!

The Brooklyn Historical Society is located at 128 Pierrepont Street in Brooklyn Heights.

"Big Sky Brooklyn" on TV Thursday night

Big Sky Brooklyn is one of my favorite photo blogs. His photos are a homage to old industrial south brooklyn and he has a thing for cemeteries, factories, eccentric characters, irish bars and the contrast of old and new Brooklyn. I especially like his narrations, check out "Ode to the discarded air conditioner" or one of his many "Industrial Haikus".

Here is what Adam aka Big Sky Brooklyn has to say about the details:

Big Sky Brooklyn will be featured on the show Neighborhood Beat (on BCAT), September 27 at 8:30 pm.
The segment will include an interview with yours truly and a visit to some hallowed Brooklyn sites that appear on the blog (like Backhoe Gulch, the Ninth Street Bridge, and the Gowanus Canal).

The show can be viewed in any of the following ways:
- Time Warner Cable, channel 56
- Cablevision, channel 69
- Streaming live online (scroll to “Watch BCAT Live” and click #3)

The show will repeat October 10, 15, and 19 at 8:30 pm.