Over the weekend I attended my fifth 1920s Jazz Age Garden Party on Governor’s Island.  The party has its own particular brand of magic.  One feels like they are stepping into the world’s most elaborate movie set, full of the most diverse cast of characters.

Every year I shoot the portraits of the attendees with that mind.  That they are all playing a role in a wistful movie about the 1920s.  Obviously I wasn’t alive in the 1920s, but I think the 1920s had a kind of a wistful quality.  They gave way to the tough 1930s and those celebrating that time can be expected to have a wistful quality of a time never seen again.

A photography style note:

I always shoot these completely spontaneously to capture the movie feeling.  I hardly ever ask anyone to pose.  I actually rather prefer that they don’t pose because the breaks the illusion that I am in a movie.  The imagination is no match for real life, so let’s keep real life out of this as long as we can:

The mannequin revolution is coming.  Be very careful:

WOW.  The fashion file hits 40!!!!  Insane.  I wish I had realized that, so we could collectively have a look back at the sheep coats, sandwich costumes, moose hats and banana get ups that have filled this page will glee for the past two years or so.

Perhaps one day I will make a greatest hits of Boston Fashion File.  But for right now, we have more pressing matters at hand.

Diana Vreeland said that the eye must travel, so Boston Fashion File traveled.  To New York.

So this is Boston Fashion File, New York edition.

New York is one of the glamorous fashion capitals of the world.  Considered the home of refined American sportswear, the city boasts such fashion luminaries as Calvin Klein, Michael Kors and Marc Jacobs.

Um, yeah anyway, so none of those people are featured in this blog post, although I do wish that Michael Kors read the blog to contribute quips.  Those other two can stay as labels in the back of my clothes.

No, this New York edition of Boston Fashion File will feature Boston Fashion File type clothes in New York.

First up, this cutie, kind of overdressed for a hot day on the frying pan known as New York City in the summer:

Wear the coat with pride, little one.  The next two seem to have emerged from a time machine of some kind.  Or are just dressed up for a theater production.  Answer number two is the more likely one:

Perform proud dear friends.

The eye has traveled.  I sought beauty and I found it.

Ah Instagram.  I resisted getting one for so long because I was convinced that Instagram was going to lead to the downfall of photography as we know it.

Then one day I was reading New York magazine and there was a story about this Instagram page called “You Did Not Eat That.”  It features all of these pictures of food posted by various fashion bloggers who waists are as big as my wrists.  I noticed that trend forming too a while ago with a lot of fashion bloggers posting photos of the high fat desserts they supposedly eat all the time.  The page makes me laugh all the time.  So I got an Instagram account to follow “You Did Not Eat That.”  And my life has since been filled with hilarity.

So, in celebration of “You Did Not Eat That,” some photos of incredibly delicious food that I did not eat.  Today.  But there is always tomorrow:

Yeah.  I just said that.  Need proof?  Here you go:

Because rhythm is a dancer!!!

No, not really, but look at how much fun they appear to be having huh?:

You can enjoy just such an array of delights in the North End, if you so desire:

Here he is:

Today I would like to add to the canon of great science the following theorem.  In the world exists of great Cosby vortex, wherein a sweater featuring an image of Bill Cosby can feature an image of, you guessed it, Bill Cosby.  Now that inner vortex Cosby will then in turn feature another image of Bill Cosby, effectively throwing us into the Cosby vortex.

Want to see proof?  Here you go:

As a part of my job, I go to museums.  A lot.  I see the same things over and over and some exhibits come and go.  Many of the exhibits are interesting, but one I saw recently knocked me out completely.

It was by an artist called Ragnar Kjartansson, who is Icelandic and a genius.  Ragnar, if you reading this, you are a complete genius. The exhibit was called “Visitors” and it was at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.  The exhibit is hard to describe and was extremely hard to photograph.

What it consisted of where projected images that looked almost like Dutch paintings, but were in fact film.  The foreground was moving, but not the background, creating almost a feeling of being three dimensional.  In each piece, a person was playing a piece of music and all the screen were synchronized.  The effect was like being in a symphony orchestra, but playing old fashioned American blues music.  I could have stayed in that room for hours.  That is how beautiful it was.

Photographing it was not easy and the photos don’t come close to what I saw in that room.  At least you can see the exhibit: