New Portraits for NationSwell Council

I covered the NationSwell Summit on Service conference held at NYU Kimmel Center. It was great to hear such forward positive thinking from a wide variety of America. In addition to covering the event, I made several portraits including the three below.

Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder & CEO of Kickstarter.

U.S. Representative Seth Moulton, 6th Congressional District of Massachusetts.

Andrew Yang, Founder and CEO of Venture for America.

A song so good they made two music videos? On Jamie xx's "Gosh"

One of my favorite music videos of last year is Jamie xx's Gosh, directed by Erik Wernquist.  I love the sentiment of exploring space, especially in light of the recent Juno probe's successful rendezvous with Jupiter. The sweeping landscapes match the music's uplifting beat and makes me feel like dreams are possible. If you haven't seen the clip check it out below:

Jamie xx – Gosh. Published on April 27, 2015. Taken from the album, In Colour. Directed by Erik Wernquist. Photos by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.

So I'm not clear on why a second video was created. The recently released clip by Romain Gavras has an equally engaging epic feeling but moves the theme and meanings of the song into a totally different space. Filmed in the Chinese city of Tianducheng, a Paris replica, the clip has a very different view of a future world.

Check it out below and put what you think in the comments.

Jamie xx – Gosh. Published on July 1, 2016. Taken from the album, In Colour. Directed by Romain Gavras.

Orange County Government Center—An ongoing project in Goshen, NY

Brutalism is a polarizing style of architecture. When I talk about the Orange County Government Center and the surrounding controversy regarding its partial demolition, many people shrug. Historical preservation is a tricky balance. Protect buildings too strictly and you stand in the way of progress. Save nothing and you lose your history, your art, and the poetry of a place.

I first traveled to Goshen, NY to photograph the Orange County Government Center when the proposals to remodel/destroy the structure were in full swing. Lawsuits were flying back and forth, as well as proposals for the repurposing of the building into other uses, along with pleas for repairs and historical preservation.

The building was built in 1967 and designed by celebrated architect Paul Rudolph. The space contained the main office of the government of Orange County with most county officials' offices of the county legislature, the records of Orange County Court and an office of the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles on the first floor. The late architect Zaha Hadid noted: 

"The complex is arranged as a sequence of interconnected indoor and outdoor public spaces that flow into each other. There is an integrity within the design that displays a commitment to engagement and connectivity. As a center for civic governance, it enacted democracy through spatial integration, not through the separation of elected representatives from their constituents."

When I first visited last year, the space was closed to visitors and its future was locked up in court.

Orange County Government Center, March, 2015. © harlan erskine.

I have since visited several times and watched as the building changed from sleeping modernism to a gutted skeleton. I'm not sure what the future holds for this structure, but I'll be sure to revisit.

View the rest of my images here: Orange County Government Center, Goshen, NY

Orange County Government Center, March, 2015. © harlan erskine.

Orange County Government Center, March, 2015. © harlan erskine.

Orange County Government Center, March, 2015. © harlan erskine.