Vincent Laforet, Me and My Human, 2004

Skaters at the Lasker Rink in Central Park are dwarfed by their shadows, at least in this aerial view by Pulitzer-prizewinning New York Times photographer Vincent Laforet, February 22, 2004.

Prints of this picture (and a great many others) are available for sale at The New York Times Photo Archives.

I love this shot. First you tend to read it as abstract, then you start reading the shadows—the two parents holding the child by the hands, the skater with one leg in the air, the lone figure in the middle (who I notice somewhat later) in that peculiar insecure-skater posture, knock-kneed, wings out for balance. The colors and the vividness of this remind me somewhat of Kent Phelan’s St. Louis Stadium picture, although of course they’re very different.

Interestingly, given our recent discussions here, I notice that the Times used to put very prominent watermarks (a large “T” in a circle) over a large portion of its archive images offered for sale, but has recently stopped doing so. Do you suppose it’s because they now realize that they benefit from free advertising and that small reproductions such as this one don’t threaten such sales? I might use up TOP’s telephone budget for the month and call New York later today and try to find out. (Whoa, original reporting? This site is really getting uppity….)

I might add that I love looking through these archives. Yet another guilty pleasure, I’m afraid.

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Mike

Featured Comment by David A. Goldfarb: I don’t think there’s a tall building nor any nearby structure near Lasker Rink where you could get this vantage point. I often photograph birds near there at the Harlem Meer. I was thinking maybe he commandeered a cherrypicker that could have been changing the floodlights around the rink, but hunting around on the ‘net, well, it seems occasional TOP contributor Eamon Hickey has already interviewed LaForet about this image in 2004, and it is indeed an aerial….