Philip Montgomery | The Masjid

Photo © Philip Montgomery - All Rights Reserved

I had planned to feature an Islamic-themed photo essay a few days ago on the occasion of Eid el-Fitr, but I was in Guatemala for the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop, so couldn't find the time to do so.

The Masjid, or the mosque, is the place of worship for Muslims. These places of worship range from the simplest to the most elaborate architectural structures (the most beautiful, in my view, are those in Istanbul and were either built or influenced by the great Ottoman architect Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, who was either an Armenian, or a Greek).

The smaller places of worship are technically not mosques, but are called 'mussaleya" or some derivative thereof.

"...a person kneeling towards Mecca is not a stranger, but a brother or sister in faith."

The Masjid is the work of Philip Montgomery, and is a photo essay on the places of worships for the
the immigrant Muslim communities within New York City. Philip writes that for these new immigrants, the Masjid acts as an incubator, a neutral space, providing refuge from the outside world.

He found an incredible diversity of cultures and practices; whether in Harlem, Jamaica, Brooklyn or Queens...practices divergent from one origin to the other, whether West African Muslims, Egyptians, Palestinians, Indonesians...all bringing their rituals and characteristics to New York City's melting pot, and keeping their individual traditions intact but united under Islam, despite the slight nuances of each.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay-Area, Philip Montgomery is a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, New York. He is a graduate of the Photojournalism and Documentary Program at the International Center of Photography and is a recipient of the 2009-2010 ICP Directors Scholarship.

Wanderings In NYC | Monochromatic Hipstamatic

Photo © Tewfic El-Sawy-All Rights Reserved

I think it was photographer Chase Jarvis who said "the best camera is the one you have with you...", and he was exactly right.

I happen to love street photography and walking...and living in a city such as New York City gives me so much opportunities to indulge in these two occupations that they've become become a virtual addiction. I rarely take a cab or the subway...and provided the weather is reasonable (and sometimes, even if it's unreasonable), I prefer to walk wherever I need to be (or not to be) no matter the distance.

I'm lucky to live in a neighborhood of lower Manhattan that is still relatively multilayered, and that provides innumerable and diverse opportunities for street photography; where I can photograph moneyed tourists shopping on Bleecker Street and moments later, capturing regular New Yorkers carrying on with their daily grind near West 4th Street....or go further to Chinatown and the Bowery.

I frequently carry my Fuji X Pro-1 or Leica M9 with me...these are the days when I decide I will "do" street photography for a few hours...and that's all I do for that time. There are other days when I don't carry any cameras with me, save my iPhone...but, provided I have the time and inclination, I still hunt for street photography opportunities with the same intensity as I do when I have the "real" cameras.

It's liberating to be using an iPhone to make photographs. The simplicity, the portability and the ease of making photographs on the go with the device are just wonderfully conducive to the kind of street photography I am interested in. At this point of time, as far as the iPhone is concerned, I'm addicted to the Hipstamatic app, and use its Watts lens and the monochrome BlacKeys B+W film. I might do a tiny amount of post processing on the resultant images, but the combination is quite adequate for my taste.

Since I need a place to offload these iPhone images, I created a new blog gallery, titled Monochromatic Hipstamatic with a growing number of street photographs made during my wanderings in New York City.

I also continue to "feed" my older blog gallery The Leica File (New York City with a Leica M9, and a Fuji X Pro-1) with my ongoing street photographs of the city that never sleeps...or relaxes.