Winter in NYC is probably my least favorite time of year because, sure, the snow looks pretty for about three minutes when it first begins to fall, but then it either melts and turns into brown sludge, or it freezes and turns into sheets of ice. And as much as I love Bushwick, it’s no different from any other borough when it comes to the perils of winter weather. But what do other boroughs not have? A Bushwick Daily Insta-Takeover series to capture the beauty within the grit, that’s wut.
Shawn Rutkowski‘s 10-day Insta-Takeover focused on the wintry, gritty side of the neighborhood. Shawn, a NYC-based, internationally published photographer and marketer, showed that Bushwick is a lived-in neighborhood. Maybe that’s why it fails in many ways to be a touristy neighborhood (despite the tourists)? Apart from the seasonal snow and sludge, there are other aspects that set it apart from the more immaculately clean, Disney-looking areas of the city. From its barbed wire and endless number of stray cats, to the ever-present rust and garbage, it ain’t always picture-perfect. But through the lens of a photographer looking for moments of truth, it’s possible to identify a sad beauty in those grittier elements too.
Shawn helps find those moments of reflection in the photos below. If you like ’em, make sure to head over to our Instagram page for the rest.
Happening now on our Instagram: Stephanie Gould zooms in on the surfaces of Bushwick.
