The bridge 

across the pond 

the fountain 

under the bridge 

through the branches across the pond 

west side in the 70s 

across the pond and through the trees 

from the roof garden at the Met 

top of the resevoir 

From the top of the Great Oval 

Christo's exhibition 'The Gates' is currently flourishing in Central Park. I have been very taken by the exhibition, but was not quite sure why until yesterday. At midday I entered Central Park at 85th Street and Fifth Avenue and started heading north under the fluttering, floating saffron canvases that led the way. The park still had a blanket of snow from a storm two days earlier. I meandered into the far reaches and corners of the northern park. I journeyed to places I had never seen in twenty years exploring the park but the gates always led the way and kept me safe. I looked through the gates and saw buildings and trees and ponds and lakes and more gates and people with smiles on their faces and distant hills and skylines and very distant gates and animals and birds who were sharing the experience with me. When the sun peered around clouds the gates bathed in it's rays, and against the bleak, colorless, desolate background of mid-February, became flourescent. They glowed like candles and were often visible as far as the eye could see like a small army bringing hope and good will. They could be seen at attention through tree branches, or marching in file over hilltops sometimes with just their upper bodies showing. Everywhere were people walking through them trying to understand why they felt so good. Four hours later, and without intending to do so, I had circumnavigated the entire six mile perimeter of the park on the meandering pathways under Christo's every changing saffron sky. Here are some photos of the journey shown sequentially starting and ending just inside the park at 85th Street on the eastside, but starting with some random shots taken earlier in the week . Enjoy. I did.

 

Floating in the wind beside the great oval. 

The hordes under the saffron blanket 

Delacorte Theatre from the castle. 

From the castle above the great oval. 

Beside the Metropolitan Museum 

Shortly after my journey north started I entered the the park's lovely hilly sector in the high east 90s near the botanical gardens. 

The Gates lining the Harlem Meer at the north east corner of the park at 110th street and Fifth Avenue. 

The Harlem Meer surrounded by The Gates. 110th street in the background. 

A performance artist braving the elements under a bridge at the north western corner of the park: 110th street 

Just below the northwest corner (West 108th street) 

West 90s and 100s 

West 90s 

West 60s looking across the pond. 

Columbus Circle with the Time Warner complex in the background