11th Avenue

April 1990

Whenever a new convention or trade show was loading into or out of the Javits Center there would be a blocks-long queue of moving vans in front of the building along 11th Avenue, with an almost equal number on West Street. Few of them had their drivers inside, I assume they were inside the convention center, negotiating the amounts of the bribes necessary for a smooth unloading.

But as we can see, not all truckers travel alone, nor do all of them rely solely on an electronic alarm system for their vehicles. Here a companion/deterrent sits alertly in the driver's seat on a late-spring afternoon. When I was in a hurry I would take this route to Penn Station from the shop on 44th Street, I felt I could make better time with fewer people to dodge. Ironically, five months earlier I was mugged almost directly across the street from this spot, on a rainy November night. I could have used a vigilant dog back then.

Shot on Kodak Recording film, underexposed, then push-processed (1600 ISO) to get the chunky grain native to this emulsion.