New York Big Apple Images

05/01/2025

Untapped New York recently contacted me about using one of my photos of the Queens County Savings Bank in an article on finding the Liberty Bell in Queens. (Mine is the second photo from the top within the article.)

A copy of the famous American bell can be found inside a bank, which itself is modeled after Independence Hall!

10/21/2024

Visited the nearly ghost town pf Desert Shores on the Salton Sea recently. The Salton Sea is an artificial lake caused by runoff from irrigation from the Colorado River. From the mid-1950s, it was developed as a vacation destination with small resort villages attracting families who either arrived in or rented trailers or who built small vacation homes. The state filled the sea with fish, attracting birds and fishermen.

Two tropical storms in the 1970s imperiled the dream, flooding the resorts. Additionally, the natural salts of the region were leeching into the sea and fertilizer runoff from nearby agriculture killed the fish and birds, dooming the resorts.

Today, about four sad, forlorn villages barely survive, generally about 30 feet inland from the shrinking shoreline. Winds blow up toxic chemicals from the exposed seabed and the air has an uninviting odor to it.

Imperial County

08/29/2024

My photo appears on the School of Business page on the Lehman College website. Lehman is part of the CUNY system. I was lucky to get a sunny day with dramatic clouds when I was there. (And yes, for those who will ask, I was paid for this usage.)

06/20/2024

Spent a lovely morning at Joshua Tree National Park. The rock formations caused by wind and water eroding the large outcroppings and the unusual eponymous trees make the park unique and interesting. Not too many people there on a hot (mid 80s) weekday, which was also nice. The park is expansive and I concentrated on the Hemingway Buttress (not named for the famous author). Fun fact: it is speculated that the name "Joshua" was given to the trees by early migrating Mormans, who likened the trees formation of a central stalk branching out as the tree grows to the Biblical Joshua. Click below to see some of the pictures I took.

San Bernardino County

06/12/2024

I'm pleased that one of my photographs of the Theresa Hotel in Harlem was requested for the recently opened exhibition "A Moment In History: Living The Legacy" at the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center at the old Audubon Theatre in Washington Heights.

08/05/2023

In a recent trip to Palm Springs it was 118º. Needless to say, I spent as little time outside as possible. But I did manage to get a few shots in.

Riverside County

07/09/2023

Ace Rivington, a "premium men’s & women's denim brand based in Santa Barbara," used my photo of the Vesuvio Café on their blog page "Destination: San Francisco, California" with the caption "Any regular hangout for Jack Kerouac is a good enough place for us to grab a beer." I wholeheartedly agree with their sentiment. Photo © Matthew X. Kiernan/New York Big Apple Images

04/24/2023

Napa County

04/24/2023

Spent a lovely Spring day out on Soda Canyon Road north of Napa. The hills were full of California poppies and a purple flower called Hairy Vetch (who I alway thought was a 1930s comedian). But this was also the site of the Old Fire in June 2022 and evidence of the devastation can be seen everywhere. Still, it was encouraging to see how quickly the forest is rejuvenating amongst the burned tree trunks.

Napa County

02/14/2023

Claude McKay's HOME TO HARLEM was a best-seller when it was published in 1928. McKay provides a raw, realistic depiction of a returning WWI vet and life in post-war Harlem. One passage, describing a stroll with a female friend on the block of West 130th Street containing Astor Row and what is now St. Ambrose Episcopal Church has always been one of my favorites, evoking a time of great demographic change at the dawn of the Roaring '20s.

"They … turned on 130th Street, passing the solid gray-grim mass of the whites’ Presbyterian church, and were under the timidly whispering trees of the decorously silent and distinguished Block Beautiful. . . . The whites had not evacuated that block yet. The black invasion was threatening it from 131st Street, from Fifth Avenue, even from behind in 129th Street. But desperate, frightened, blanch-faced, the ancient sepulchral Respectability held on. And giving them moral courage, the Presbyterian church frowned … like a fortress against the invasion. With its charming green lawns and quaint white-fronted houses, it preserved the most Arcadian atmosphere in all New York.… But groups of loud-laughing-and-acting black swains and their sweethearts had started in using the block for their afternoon promenade. That was the limit: the desecrating of that atmosphere by black love in the very shadow of the gray, gaunt Protestant church! The Ancient Respectability was getting ready to flee… "

04/20/2022

One of the many grand apartment houses that line Riverside Drive is the Hendrik Hudson. It's original 72 apartments ranged in size from seven to nine rooms each. Marcus Loew of Loew's theatres once lived here. The apartments were divided in 1947 and, unfortunately, the Spanish tile roof, cornices and north tower have been removed, but a fascinating detail remains.

Hidden away in the recessed entrance on 100th Street is a recreation of renowned sculptor Pierre Puget's 17th-century entrance to the Hôtel de Ville in Toulon, France. The doorway features large atlantes holding up a balustraded balcony.

01/29/2022

There are a number of unusual landmarks in San Francisco, usually in far-flung neighborhoods or out-of-the-way locations. Here's a sampling.