Times Square With Ben

New York City - Wednesday, December 19, 2001 - By: Ben Checkowy

The City of New York has been on the main stage ever since the tragedy of September 11 and when Ben Checkowy had the chance to make the trip to the "Big Apple" he brought to us some images that give us more insight into this remarkable place. Today, the third and final set of images, focus on the area that show business seems to focus on, Broadway which if you follow is about two miles from Times Square ends in the heap of rubble that was once the twin towers of the World Trade Centre only a block or so from the United Nations building. But the "downtown" of all

downtowns is Times Square a forest of sky scrapers, signs to sell everything under the sun and loads of entertainment. As you can see Ben captured this part of the city as darkness fell and the picture above as is the one on the right are composite images made from several pictures of the same scene blended together to give a wider sense of the scene. The streets of this city are pretty much crowded twenty-four hours a day. For those of us who are David Letterman fans we are often shown glimpses of this street as Dave's CBS camera crews dash out into the street to show us the outside of the Ed Sullivan Theatre and the shops close to it only a few blocks from where Ben took these images. The scene below is a QuickTime movie showing four images of the same intersection as Ben recorded them from slightly different angles.

Many people think of this place as the site of the annual television show that brings in the New Year. This square is closed off each New Years Eve as revellers come down to see in the new year as a giant lighted ball moves to signal midnight. If you ever drive into Reno or Las Vegas at night you are struck by the incredible lighting. Buildings are flooded in light, outlined in lines and some animated in lights. These two desert cities, famous for their gambling casinos are decorated using definitely more lights than can reasonably be explained. What is interesting about these pictures Ben has shown us of New York is

The light that is flooding the streets in these night images are all coming not from outlines of gambling casinos but from advertising signs and displays. New York is after all the advertising capital of the world and its stock markets determine the world's financial condition so it seems perfectly fitting that this city focuses on what it does. It sells, barters, bargains and entertains. In this amazing picture on the right Ben shows us a sign advertising the technical stock exchange advertisement for NASDAQ and beside it is the New York City Police Department with their own showy lit building.

Ben is a photographer and he specialises in capture images of entertainers and performers so it is only natural for him to be lined up outside the Radio City Music Hall home of the world famous "Rockettes". These monster pictures of the American Pop star Britney Spears definitely caught Bens eye as he shows us this image and the one below right which decorate a corner building advertising Pepsi. The picture below left was taken in Little Italy showing the Christmas decorations on a restaurant.

Here is what Ben had to say about these pictures: Here are some snapshots of Lindsay Pagano, a 14 year old Time Warner recording artist, performing at the AOL (America Online) book...actually, on a platform on top of their Semi Truck. Which explains the crappy angle I had for the shots. AOL owns Time Warner (or is it the other way around), and are using Lindsay's video in their advertising for AOL.