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Before I get into yesterday’s photography and events that night, I want to talk about something real quickly. I discussed the other day about all these kids losing their speaking skills with talking on the phone, doing texts and all that.

The store I’m in is right down the street from F.I.T., that’s the Fashion Institute. Lots of good photography because these kids – they dress up to go to school and these outfits they create, some are really cool, some are from another planet. But what I notice as I’m taking pictures outside, if I see a group of them, all these young kids are smoking cigarettes. If I see one of them walking individually, they’re not smoking cigarettes.

So, my guess is since they have these problems with speaking skills because they’re texting all the time that they use a cigarette when they are all of them. So they’re all smoking so they could talk to each other, take a hit out of cigarette, think before they speak. So, I think this texting thing and email is taking away the speaking skills which means when they’re out in the street, they have to smoke cigarettes to deal with speaking to people.

Anyway, getting back to yesterday, like I said, I was out there photographing, focusing on these kids from F.I.T. They would stop and pose because fashion is their life and Portraits of New York is going to photograph them. So, it’s very easy to stop them in the street.

So, these great posing pictures – I would like to call them street folios. But last night, it was great. Down in SoHo on Greene Street, the Russian Gallery which I photographed for the last six years there – they always have some Russian artists coming in from Russia and do a show. And it’s always very good art. It could be sculptures, it could be paintings, it could be photography.

What’s very unique about this, they have these three or four exotic vodkas from Russia and they serve some cheeses and caviar. It’s just a great event and the people – the Russian community, the older people – they get dressed up to the T. I mean, the cane, the hat, the velvet sports jacket. These pictures are great. I’d love to get these old-timers and frame them with photos. They all know me there so it’s fun.

I guess that’s it for yesterday. Tonight I’m back on Greene Street. There’s an art gallery on 57 Greene Street.