Neptune Avenue

Michael Krondl

Looking Up, 2004

Faceted glass in platform windscreens

Michael Krondl describes Looking Up as "a series of photographically-derived images" that creates a movie for the subway rider as he or she leaves the leafy residential neighborhoods and reaches Coney Island, seen of in the distance. Krondl selected his images for their properties and how they reflect and refract light. His sources include the nearby foliage and the sky, which is a big part of the experience of riding the elevated train in Brooklyn, and Coney Island's famous Cyclone roller coaster. "The transition from image to image mimics a camera panning from the nearby trees to the sky above and finally to the Cyclone in the distance. For the F train passenger the experience is almost cinematic. The foliage, the clouds, and the roller coaster all play with transparency; light-colored sky outlines the trestlework on the Cyclone, peeks out between the leaves, and envelops the bright white clouds."