Day of the Elephants

Ranking way up there in the "only in NYC" list of cool things to do, I spent the day with elephants -- both figuratively and literally.

Earlier in the day, I attended the Ashes & Snow exhibit at Pier 54. Housed in a mobile museum, constructed entirely out of freight containers (you know the type you see rolling down the railway) is the work of Canadian photographer, Gregory Colbert. Created over 13 years and 33 expeditions, his 10ftX4ft photos are immaculate. At times it's hard to believe they are real. The images are cinematic and epic and yet personal and profound. Virtually all the 200 prints contained some interaction of humans with animals in their own environment. Some of the strongest images had to be the shots with elephants, especially those with the elephants swimming. Other shots that are permanently burnt into my brain are the birds of prey at Cairo (I think) in Egypt and the free dive photos with the sperm whales. All I can say is look at the site. His work is exquisite. Colbert made me proud to be a Canadian and jealous as hell at all the same time. Not only because of his sheer expertise and craftmanship with the photos but because of the incredible locations he's been able to shoot at as well.

Later that night, I got to see elephants up close and personal. Every year Ringling Bros. Circus brings their elephants in through Manhattan from the Midtown Tunnel, down 34 Street to Madison Square Gardens, where they will perform for the next 2 weeks. It's an annual event and takes place around midnight so as to disturb the least amount of traffic. The ritualy was based in practicality as at one time it was the only way they could get the animals into the Gardens -- now I think they do it as tradition and an easy publicity event/photo op. Regardless, the end result is that you can in effect run with the elephants over the course of their 7 or 8 block route. There were thousands of people out along 34 Street but seeing as it is NYC, this is a small turnout. However, I can't see that this will go on forever -- either because of Animal Rights Activists, some type of accident with a bystander who gets too close (and there were lots of us who pushed the limits to get as close as we could, even with the handlers and police asking everyone to return to the sidewalk) or the growing number of spectators making it impossible to control. I feel kind of lucky to have been able to be a part of it. Here's what I learned: 1) for great big lumbering animals, those damn elephants are fast (here's some useless trivia in just 12 minutes they had travelled from Park Avenue to their final destination at the Gardens -- that makes them faster than most NY taxis); 2) the closer you get to them, the less you can ignore their particular and fragrant odor; 3) and that I'm probably wise to stick to my fine art photography because this action stuff of shooting and running at the same time didn't get me a lot of really memorable (or even usable, for that matter) images. Oh well, there's always next year.