Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2013

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2013

Some of these shots were featured @:
Animal NY: animalnewyork.com/2012/welcome-to-planet-rockaway/
Il Post: www.ilpost.it/2013/01/02/le-dune-di-new-york/
Business Insider: www.businessinsider.com/dunes-after-hurricane-sandy-in-ro…
Daily Mail: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2255756/The-eerie-lunar-…
Yahoo! http://news.yahoo.com/photos/eerie-lunar-landscape-in-queens-slideshow/
BuzzFeed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/thesaccattack/this-is-in-new-york-city-5o2x
The Blaze: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/believe-it-or-not-these-awesome-sand-pyramids-were-found-in-new-york-city/
The Inquisitr: http://www.inquisitr.com/466235/eerie-pyramids-in-nyc-spotted-by-brooklyn-photographer/
Complex: Complex: http://www.complex.com/art-design/2013/01/eerie-photographs-of-sand-dunes-in-new-yorks-rockaways-from-hurricane-sandy
Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/03/eerie-pyramids-in-nyc-new-york-new-jersey-hurricane-sandy-photos_n_2401992.html?1357229954
International Science Times: http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/4296/20130103/eerie-pyramids-nyc-amazing-photos-rockaways-hurricane-sandy.htm
International Business Times: http://www.ibtimes.com/charles-le-brigands-eerie-pyramids-nyc-photos-show-power-hurricane-sandy-991324
The Dirty Apple: http://thedirtyapple.com/blog/2013/01/pyramids-in-new-york-city-after-hurricane-sandy/
La Repubblica: http://www.repubblica.it/esteri/2013/01/04/foto/new_york_come_l_egitto_dopo_l_uragano_sandy-49894400/1/?ref=HRESS-7

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2013

This is what’s left of the Silver Gull Beach Club, which first opened in 1963 and was used for the filming of the movie “The Flamingo Kid.” The popular summer getaway was completely devastated by the storm.

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2012

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2012

That specific Sunday, I was suddenly awakened by the sounds emanating from a pile of stacked speakers in the middle of the street, right in front of my house. A couple of neighbors had chipped in to rent the speakers for the occasion. Another neighbor, Elvis, was fine-tuning balance levels while Trevor, who happened to be passing by, started to dance. I ran to the bodega and bought some ice-cold beers and hot dogs that I grilled on my stoop with a portable BBQ, and distributed them among the kids of the block.

Ever since that very first block party, I have always found the joyous atmosphere about them addictive. Even this past weekend, I was invited to a block party in Bushwick, Brooklyn by Angel, whom I met only a few days ago.

Angel had parked his cars horizontally across the street to block off traffic and installed some “do not cross” police barriers. When I arrived around 1pm, the fiesta had already begun, and the block was alive under the fire of the sun. The aroma of sizzled meat seasoned the humid air, and a few thick and steamy puffs of wind struggled to stir a huge Puerto Rican flag fixed on a street pole. Adults were chattering, dancing and laughing. Boys were riding their bikes and running all over the block, while girls were hula-hooping and jumping in inflatable pools. Angel waved at me while pounding the beat on a tin can – and with a quick sideways glance, immediately indicated where the coolers packed with ice and beers were located. “Toma, grab one, it is the only remedy against the heat,” he said.

Angel’s son, Angelito, had his iPod connected to the sound system and was caught in the middle of an intergenerational friction. While he had selected modern hip-hop tracks, old-timers demanded traditional Salsa Nuyorkina. Facing this growing pressure, Angelito switched to Ruben Blades. “Ok, ok – ay les va,” he said to settle things down. Angelito’s friends were shuffling tiles and exchanging singles a few feet away from the effervescence. An imperturbable chef was flipping dozen of patties while women were busy figuring out the food and refrescos logistics. Most of them had cooked delicious specialties all day the day before, and the foldable tables were filled with aluminum trays of bicultural delicacies. After eating a plateful of pernil and arroz con gandules, I took my camera and snapped a couple of pictures, trying my best to capture this vibrant laid back atmosphere and that marvelous sense of camaraderie.

On my way back home, I made a quick stop at another block party, where teens were shooting hoops and where grown-ups rode their motorized toys. I managed to take a couple of images before the firefighters arrived to turn off the spitting hydrant’s water works. Some angry neighbors might have complained about the low water pressure in the nearby blocks.

Words and images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2012

The series 100 Days of Summer includes approximately 100 pictures of open fire hydrants. These are my personal favorites.

See full series here

Words and images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2010-11-12

While New Yorkers have myriad beach options to choose from in Brooklyn, Queens,Long-Island and New Jersey, many Bronx inhabitants choose Orchard Beach due to its relatively convenient location. It’s the quickest way for them to access the sea, sand and sun. Just a bus ride away from the boiling and humid blocks of the borough, Orchard Beach is the only public beach in the Bronx. And for many families, it is the highlight of the hot summer season.

Back in the late 1930’s, infamous urban planner Robert Moses created this mile long artificial beach, originally named the “Bronx Riviera.” Although widely known as the latter, locals call it “Horse Shit Beach” or the “Puerto Rican Riviera.” Latinos affectionately refer to it as “Playa Chocha”, while New-Yorkers simply know it as “Ghetto Beach.” Orchard Beach is like nothing I’ve experienced before. While the beach may certainly lack proper facilities and the glamour of a “traditional Riviera” (whatever that means), the atmosphere, energy and people clearly compensate… particularly on Sundays or during long holiday weekends.

I arrived at Orchard Beach around 10:30AM on July 4th, and the place was already jam-packed. The best spots in the picnic area of the park were taken and grilled meat and sinsemilla filled the air with pleasing aromas. Families were playing dominos, while elderly visitors enjoyed the shade under massive trees where Puerto Ricans flags hung proudly: pa’que tu lo sepas. Adjacent to the overcrowded parking lot, ballers shouted and screamed during heated basketball and volleyball games.

The main promenade that runs parallel to the beach was filled with unassuming yet jovial, and admittedly loud, characters. This is where the action takes place, and where the people are on display. On section 7, next to the Cuban fast-food restaurant, old-timers chanted the romantic lyrics of their favorite salsa tunes coming out of the homemade ‘maleta boomboxes’. Dancers’ steps were guided by the additional layers of rhythm provided by congas, cowbell and güiro players jamming on the makeshift dance-floor. Teenagers displayed their acrobatics skills while others chatted up any unaccompanied girls who passed by.

A multitude of colorful parasols and extra-large coolers were scattered throughout the hot, crescent shaped white-sand strip, where loungers boasted bronzed, oily flesh adorned with tattoos, exuberant bikinis, flat-top sunglasses and other shiny accessories. Meanwhile, a horde of young lifeguards in bright orange swimsuits watched the kids playing in the water with nonchalance.

There is no bollocks nor hipster-coolness at Orchard Beach. Only raw people, genuine flavor and unbridled attitude. People go to Orchard beach to have fun and they look genuinely happy. Orchard Beach is one remaining enclave of the real New York, and there’s nothing better than the real New York during summer.

Make sure to listen to my salsa vieja playlist “Un Verano en Nueva York” for additional texture and immediate teleportation to the Bronx Riviera.

Agradecimiento especial a toda la gente del Bronx y de playa Orchard por su trato y sencillez.
Big-up to Randy Diaz , Kike and Libia for sharing their salsa expertise.

Also, make sure to check Wayne Lawrence‘s awesome work on Orchard Beach

More images on my flickr
Words, images and playlist by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

Under Manhattan’s Upper West side, runs the “Freedom” Tunnel. Built in the 30’s by Robert Moses, the passage boasts legendary graffiti murals and piles of debris remaining of the past homeless city era. After using it for only a couple of years, Amtrak discontinued the line and left a massive cavern which later became a shelter for street people. Progressively, the tunnel turned into a veritable underground metropolis where thousands of homeless were living in organized communities underneath the city’s skin.

The tunnel also became a prime spot for graffiti artists. Chris Pape, aka Freedom, was one of the pioneers and his work inspired the name of the tunnel. “Freedom” painted immense murals utilizing the unique lighting provided by the ventilation ducts, turning the tunnel into an extraordinary underground art gallery. Some of his most notable paintings survived for decades and are still conspicuous today (“Venus de Milo”, the “Coca-Cola Mural”, Dali’s “Melting Clock”,a self-portrait featuring a male torso with a spray-can head, etc.).

In 1991, Amtrak decided to reopen the tunnel. The shanty towns were cleared out by the police and homeless were evicted. Although deserted, the tunnel is now an active train line and a stunning experience for urban explorers.

It is a bizarre blend of dark and light, silence and rumble, solitude and multitude. As you penetrate the tunnel and walk along the tracks, the sunbeams perforating the ceiling and highlighting the railway gives the place a post-nuclear feel. Voices from children playing above in Riverside Park sound like lost souls and trains whistling and roaring through the ruins of the shanty towns send chills down your spine.

This is one of the most uncommon and fascinating journeys I’ve ever taken.

See full photo narrative here

Words, images and video by Charles le Brigand
All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2010

More picture of the Freedom Tunnel by NYCitizen here

Music: “Ascendance” by Zenzile

Be sure to check “Dark Days”, a fantastic documentary about the Freedom Tunnel.

On Saturdays, during Shabbat, bearded men wearing modest uniforms and wide fur hats always seem in a hurry, while women covered with dark, long-sleeved dresses and turbans quietly push their strollers in residential streets where a sheer number of houses have barred windows. On Lee Avenue, the epicenter of the religious community, a multitude of small synagogues, rabbinic academies, shops, grocer’s, Yiddish and Hebraical posters pulse the life of the locality.

Taking photographs in Hasidic Williamsburg can be awkward. You clearly feel you are disturbing and pedestrians are here to remind you of your incursion. While capturing the intense and unusual urban scenery, I have received quite a number of hostile looks. Not long ago, I’ve been encircled by a bunch of kids who told me I was an “evil man”. Since their arrival from Europe after World War II., Hasidim have created a detached island, a few stops away from Manhattan, where sociological walls were built to re-create a traditional “shtetl” lifestyle and to protect them from change.

Today, the feelings of autarky and rejection are even stronger as the community faces the rise of gentrification in northern Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, where residential towers are inaugurated every month. Community leaders fear for the neighborhood’s identity as well as for the educational dilemma of teaching Hasidic youth according to the methods of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism with the annoying proximity of immorality.

Here are a couple of images I have taken between Winter 2009 and Spring 2011.

More images on my flickr

Words and Images by Charles le Brigand
All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

“When I grew-up, everybody was middle class and successful – with a house in the suburbs and a car, or maybe two. Now, everybody is poor,” says Ed, a proud Detroiter, war veteran and local urban explorer. He adds, “Detroit has lost 1 million people over the last two decades” and more than half of its population since the 1950s. Ed is right. Besides a couple of homeless wandering here and there, the streets are empty. There is no pedestrian bustle, no commercial activity, no street life … only a couple of random cars animate Detroit’s immense avenues and boulevards.

The city is trapped in a vicious cycle of urban distress brought on by many factors, including the slow failure of the automotive-based economic model, the early white suburban exodus, the relocation of production plants in Detroit’s periphery, racial disharmony and the recent global financial crisis. According to the US Census Bureau, 30% of Detroit population lives below the poverty line, 1 in 3 Detroit residents is unemployed and the murder rate is at an all-time high. It is crazy to think that Detroit was once the living proof of American prosperity and the iconic representation of the American Dream. Today it is merely the shadow of what it used to be, a faded dream and a living case-study of urban decay.

Detroit was also more than just metal and motors. It used to be a thriving creative hub where countless talents have emerged in different fields, most notably music. The Supremes, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Iggy Pop, Madonna, Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, George Clinton, J-Dilla, Alice Cooper, Eminem, Kid Rock, The White Stripes, and Aaliyah all have roots here. Detroit was a pioneer in sound creation, and the city’s various musical eras continue to influence the current music scene. But only a few of the above artists have decided to stay in Detroit, and truthfully, you can’t blame them.

In fact, people are still leaving Detroit. 10,000 people are fleeing to greener pastures every year and it appears that overcoming that obstacle might be impossible. Only one third of the land is occupied, and “even if 10,000 new homes were built every year for the next 15 years we wouldn’t fill up our city,” said Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit’s former corrupt mayor.

I asked Ed if the police were watching the buildings and factories that we were about to access and he retorted: “Nobody cares what you do in Detroit.”

I had ambiguous feelings when visiting Detroit. I felt a strange blend of sadness and thrill. As we explored the magnificent wreckages that once formed the most prosperous manufacturing empire in the world, I could not help but think of the disappearance of great civilizations like the Mayans, the Romans or the Egyptians and it reminded me of the ephemeral nature of things. Maybe, like the cycle of life itself, Detroit has to die so a new city can live …

Vincent Vega and I spent three busy days exploring and documenting the ruins of an empire, a tour that took us to Michigan Central Station, Packard and Fisher Body 21 production plants, an old high-school, the Wurlitzer building in downtown Detroit and many streets and avenues in the Metro Detroit area.

Michigan Central Station: Nothing embodies Detroit’s past grandeur better than Michigan Central Station. This Beaux Arts Classical style temple of transportation was completed in 1913 and was the tallest railroad station in the world, and the fourth tallest building in Detroit. MCS consists of a three-story train depot and an eighteen-story office tower. MCS was designed by the same architects that created NYC Grand Central Terminal. Potential cost of restoration are estimated at $300 million dollars and MCS is currently threatened by demolition.

Fisher Body 21: This plant was built to house a body assembly line for Cadillacs and Buicks in the 1920’s and ceased operations in the 1974. The name was well known to the public, as General Motors vehicles displayed a “Body by Fisher” emblem on their door sill plates until the mid-1980s. Fisher Body is now officially a Detroit Police impound lot and faces an uncertain future. This plant was probably my favorite spot in Detroit.

Packard Plant: The Packard Plant is former automobile-manufacturing factory in Detroit, Michigan where luxury Packard cars were made by the Packard Motor Car Company. This 3,500,000-square-foot building closed in 1958. The city is currently looking at demolishing it.

Wurlitzer Building: Designed in Renaissance Revival style this 14-story building opened in December 1926 and once housed the famous Wurlitzer Company, which made pianos, organs, jukeboxes, radios and instruments. After a succession of other business and offices, the building closed in March 1982. It is currently on the city’s list for demolition.

Cass Tech High School: Cass Technical High School was founded in 1861 and closed in 2005. During the 1920s Cass held classes in chemistry and biology in addition to printing classes. The city is planning to raze the building in June 2011.

See full gallery here
Words and images by Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2010
Big up to Ed and Doppelganger for all the tips and recos.

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2012

2011 in numbers: 3422 frames shot, edited down to 689 images uploaded on flickr.

Images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

Special thanks to my friend William for the tip and to Vinny for tagging along.

Read more about it in the NYtimes

Words and images by Stephane Missier aka Charles le Brigand

All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2011

Here is a magnificent description by Albert Camus:
“New York is nothing without its sky. Naked and immense, stretched to the four corners of the horizon, it gives the city its glorious mornings and the grandeur of its evenings, when a flaming sunset sweeps down Eighth Avenue over the immense crowds driving past the shop windows, whose lights are turned on well before nightfall. There are also certain twilights along Riverside Drive, when you watch the parkway that leads uptown, with the Hudson below, its waters reddened by the setting sun; off and on, from the uninterrupted flow of gently, smoothly running cars, from time to time there suddenly rises a song that recalls the sound of breaking waves”.

Here are some additional shots that I took earlier this year in Brooklyn and Queens

Images by Charles le Brigand
All rights reserved. Une production de Brigand © 2010