Sometimes you just want to grab hold of those buildings, throw yourself at the sidewalk and ugh, ugh, ohhh. Amirite Steve Levitch?
Photographer Nikola Tamindzic’s newest project Fucking New York is about fucking New York, that powerful appreciation for whatever it is that makes you tolerate this city’s many flaws and fuck-ups, that love manifesting itself physically as a series of poised sexual abstractions.
It helps that Nikola’s photos are always beautiful. He makes pressing your breasts at a window look eloquent, enchanting.
How do they do it? Very quickly.
“We walk around and something will catch my eye,” Nikola tells ANIMAL. “Often, it’s not a very striking location. Sometimes it is — the glass windows of Standard hotel in Meatpacking District, or top of 30 Rock. I see potential in the scene, we go for it, and start shooting. Usually, 15-30 seconds later we’re done. It’s often a quickie — you know how overwhelmed people are with New York, they blow their wad pretty early on.” Queer porn actor Jiz Lee took 60 seconds, their shortest shoot ever. Shortest shoot ever? Fever Ray’s Karin Dreijer Andersson in 45 seconds.
And the cops? There hasn’t been any trouble. “Well, not yet,” he says. “I saw a cop chatting up one of the models who was posing in the middle of the street, just pulled over his cruiser, elbow out the window, all ‘Haaay girl.’ Being topless in New York streets is legal anyway, and I only rarely go for full nudes.”
“Oh, I almost forgot. You can tell an out-of-towner by leery grins and cellphone high in the air,” he goes on. “I shot by the UPS warehouse on Houston once, all the workers came out, unpacked their sandwiches, and just hung out nearby, not giving a shit, but appreciating the scene… Just don’t be a jackass. New Yorkers don’t give a fuck for the most part.”
The project is in progress and is hyper-inclusive, which is where you come in — women, men, genderqueers, everybody. If you’d like to participate, contact the photographer. Or you could buy some prints while you think it over.
Hmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmmmm.
