Where the Shadows are Pastel Blue
The furthest point of New York City is a long peninsula, Rockaway, divided in half by the passage of the only subway line that connects it to the streets of Manhattan: the A line. On one side, Rockaway overlooks the deep blue of the Atlantic Ocean; on the other, the JFK Airport.
Since 1900, it has been known as a summer destination, a place to have a second home, an escape from the skyscrapers and the crowded streets. Here you can feel that people are waiting for the nice weather, but there is always someone enjoying the solitude of the colder months. Rockaway is part of New York CIty but it looks completely different.
Seaside cities have a completely different taste from the season in which they are frequented, more than any other city: summer here is hot and busy, and winter cold and silent; cloudless days reveal the yellow hue of sunlight and the pastel blue of shadows.
Rockaway has the sea, the freezing winter, the restricted hours of the ice cream shop and the pet store; the fishermen, who don't care what month it is; if there's sun, on Sundays it fills up with people, families, cyclists. But moving away from the beach, it reveals herself as something else: a place with closed house windows and stacked bar tables, where everyone patiently waits for summer.
Awards
2024 Documentary Arts Fellowship, Documentary Arts, Inc.