New York Daily Photo Analytics

Monday, April 21, 2008

Silent Rave

At dinner on Friday night, two friends informed me that there was to be a silent rave in Union Square Park. So, with camera in tow, we walked to Union Square, where activities were already in progress. Hundreds of people were gyrating, each to their music provided by their own portable music players, primarily iPods. Some were sharing sounds. I was immediately recruited by someone who introduced himself as Fong and said they were in desparate need of a photographer to cover the event for something he was putting together - what exactly, I don't know. Conversation was harried, facts were murky, - I never really got the specifics.
But we followed each other around, targeting good photo ops - Fong getting dancers to sign waivers while I shot undulating bodies in very low light, the ultimate photographic challenge, at least in the city. Fun was had by all - Fong and I appeared to be the only ones stressed - trying to capture the photos and names of moving targets.
The event could be seen loosely as a flash mob, something I wrote about in my article on the recent Pillow Fight. And calling it a rave was even a looser description - without the presence of sex, drugs (Ecstacy) and a club environment. But who's looking at definitions and grammar - this was about music and dancing :)

Note: For gallery of photos on the Silent Rave - go here to my Flickr site.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea!!! Waitingo for a silent rave in Italy....

Anonymous said...

A stunning collage of beautiful shots.. and I, too, would love for something like this to tempt Detroit. Perhaps I'll organize one some day.

Thank you for sharing your work on these pages. I've spent the better part of my afternoon browsing when I should have been productive. The sign of a great website/photographer. My thanks...

Marcin said...

Great action!!!
The best idea to make a huge street party and avoid a complains!!!
Great.

Anonymous said...

dang! i missed this one! :)

TCho said...

oh i was there (watching not participating)