There is a superstition that says “the way you bring in your new year is the way your year will go,” and if there is any truth to it, then I’m already off to a great start with my top goal for 2012. This New Years Eve I rang in the New Year photographing Jenna and Thomas’ 40s-themed New Year’s Eve celebration! Have you ever sat back and just watched what happens to people during the countdown? It’s quite amazing. And until this night, I didn’t understand it. The New Year is our opportunity to collect $200 and pass GO. It’s not starting over but its starting again with new chance and new hope. We’ve made it through the past year’s challenges, and somehow still have breath to rejoice in the triumphs.

I’m grateful for this new year, and for the new chance I have to get my resolutions and goals right once again, and for my friend who archived those resolutions.

Have a happy new year and make it a good one! (Just in case the Mayans are right.) Below are photos from the NYE party!

AK

Event Planner: Sweet Pea Events
Flowers:  DiFiori
Band:  Serenata String

Stacy-Marie and Sean with their family who flew in from Trinidad & England to celebrate with them.

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My roommate (also a freshman from California) and I slept through the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center, only to be awakened by the blaring of both our phones (landlines) ringing and ringing over and over. I groggily answered, who could be calling both of us this early in the morning. My mother was frantically on the other end asking why we were sleeping through a terrorist attack. A terriorist attack? Huh? A plane crashed into the WTC and they are saying its a terriorist attack. It must be an accident. They are really tall you know… Awake now, my roommate and I began to get ready for class, glued to my the news on my television.

At some point, my roommate left our dorm for class only to return after the second plane hit and both towers had fallen. She left again to go give blood and I left with a group of friends and my disposable camera, of course, to go to campus. Having spent the morning watching it all on the news, not expecting the damage to be so destructive, we wanted to feel for ourselves what had happened. So we walked 10 blocks downtown on Broadway, against the hoard of people covered in soot walking uptown, away from the fallen towers.

As we walked, a massive cloud of dust was rising high above downtown Manhattan. My disposable camera could not quite capture the cloud for what it really was. And when I finally developed the photos, I was disappointed that the images just looked like a really foggy day.

So in 2007 when I found the photographs below, I couldn’t help but feel excited. They felt like the photos I failed to capture. I found them one day. I had been walking around Park Slope and I came across some books that someone had left on their stoop to share with the community. I chose to take The Alienist by Caleb Carr, even though I wasn’t completely interested but since it was free it looked good enough. Once at home, as I was adding the book to my shelf the prints fell out. Three of the images had been captured on September 11, 2001. I couldn’t believe it. On closer look at the photos, I noticed that they were taken at Washington Square Park and on West 4th Street. The photographer was on the NYU campus exactly where I was when they captured these images.

These photographs have become a gift to my memory. And I am so grateful for the photographer who forgot they were in that book. If you are reading, write and I will send them to you. (PS I remember the street I found them on, so no fakes!)

x AK

This shot taken from the Staten Island ferry was on the same roll of film.

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Jun sees his bride, Shanel, for the first time after her father walked her down the aisle.

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