We are already well into summer – and the Summer Photography Tour of the Brooklyn Navy Yard is this Saturday! – but we wanted to share with you the finalists from our spring tour, selected by BLDG 92 Visiting Artist Natacha Mankowski. Congratulations to the winners, and thank you to all the photographers who submitted a near-record number of photos. Here are your winners:
Carol Larson grabbed a great shot of one of the most popular subjects in the Yard: a disused crane that sits adjacent to Dry Dock No. 1. Surprisingly, most of the Yard’s cranes are functional, servicing the active commercial ship repair yard, but some of them have lost their booms, rendering them more akin to Star Wars Imperial Walkers than shipyard cranes. Natacha noted, “It’s a very detailed and impressive black and white picture. It really translate the authentic soul of the yard.”
Next, Mike Coulombre offers this shot from the Naval Hospital Campus, depicting the little-known pool and pool house on the property. In black and white, the pool looks almost clean enough to swim in, concealing the brown and green of the rainwater-filled basin today. Natacha echoes this sentiment, adding, “It’s a very unusual and personal vision. It shows the Yard almost like it could be everyone’s backyard. It brings a more human scale to the usual portrait we get from it.”
Finally, Kristy King captures the cargo ship Nord Savannah just as it is lifting a small cherry picker – a crane lifting a crane – with its enormous shipboard cranes. We were lucky that day in April to have two enormous cargo ships sitting pierside, but this was the best of the many shipspotting photos we received. Kristy had this to say about her experience:
“The spring photo tour of the Navy Yard was wonderful. It was my first visit to the yard and I found it surprising and energizing. The tour did a wonderful job of presenting both the past and the present of the yard, giving us glimpses into the industries that are housed there and also an idea of the kind of people who occupied the yard throughout the years. I really enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to coming back for another tour in the near future!”
Thanks for the ringing endorsement, Kristy! You have two more chances to follow her advice and explore the Brooklyn Navy Yard with your camera – the summer tour will be July 18, and we’ll shoot in the fall October 10.
