DRAWING LIFE by fred hatt

Last weekend the Eastern U.S. had its first major snowfall of the season, immediately preceding the Winter Solstice.  Around this time of year our culture ritually celebrates the White Christmas and the Winter Wonderland, Jack Frost and Frosty the Snowman, calling up nostalgic images of horse-drawn sleigh rides and cozy houses among rolling hills of pure white.  The reality of snow in the city is more conflicted, both soft and harsh, beauty that rapidly becomes ugliness.  In honor of the season, here are some photos from my collection, images of great New York City snowfalls of the past decade.

Streetlamps illuminate the beautiful movement of swirling snow.  Because of its lightness, snow shows the complexity of whorls and eddies in the flowing air:

The first dusting adds a cool glamor to the gritty street:

Nothing imparts mystery to our mundane environment of walls and ads like a white veil:

Even when the snow is really coming down, the city is always full of rush and bustle:

If it gets heavy enough, the car traffic stops and major streets become walkways, as in these pictures taken while walking down the middle of Broadway during the blizzard of 2003:

In the photo immediately above you can see the fog-like effect, with objects in the distance fading to white.  As night falls, beams of light cut and color the swirls and piles:

Snow’s crumbly clumps cling to windows:

Like grains of sand in an oyster, parked cars are coated with smoothness until they become great white round mounds:

Other objects are transformed, like this concrete cherub (a popular decoration in my Italian neighborhood):

In the heaviest blizzards, like the one we had in 2003, snowfall penetrates even the subway system, drifting down the stairs and through the vents in the sidewalk:

The snow seems to capture particles of diesel exhaust and other things floating in the air, and as it melts off peoples’ shoes the subway tiles get coated with an oily grunge:

Snowplows clearing the streets pile the snow up into huge mountains, packing in parked cars and creating pedestrian barriers that have to be scaled:

Storm drains are clogged and gutters and crosswalks become lakes of dirty slush:

Within a day, New York City snow is gray and filthy.  Hardened chunks remain even as shoveling, plowing and relentless traffic clear the routes:

The high piled-up mounds can last for weeks, even through warm weather, becoming nastier day by day.  I’m sure this is what our lungs look like from breathing urban air:

As the ice retreats, the salt and other residues leave sedimentary markings on the sidewalk:

And when the sun comes out, melting snow rains down from the buildings and construction sheds, glittering like gems in the sunlight: