|
The Gates
|
 |
| 8:32 AM, Saturday February 12, 2005. One of the first of the 7,500 saffron flags unfurled on the Great Hill in Central Park, west side near 106th Street. |
 |
| The flags or curtains were rolled up around a cardboard tube, and contained within a sleeve. The volunteers had a long pole with a hook on its end to grab a loop that lets them tear open the sleeve and release the curtain. In the photo above this one you can see the sleeve coming down. |
 |
|
The heavy cardboard tubes fall with a heavy bonk. "NY city mayor Bloomberg got hit on the head by a falling tube. He wasn't hurt, but a man had his glasses broken and a woman suffered a bloody nose." monstersandcritics.com |
 |
|
The crowd on the Great Hill.
|
 |
| The helicopters constantly buzzing overhead made the morning unveiling noisy. |
 |
|
I saw lots of smiles, and people were talking to strangers.
Amazing.
|
 |
|
The tunic worn by The Gates volunteers reminded me
of medieval garb.
|
 |
| The volunteers pushed around a saffron colored cart. To collect the tubes and the sleeves. The stanchions are made of vinyl and will be recycled. They are attached to a base of some sort of stone or concrete. There is some sort of leveling mechanism hidden beneath the box at the base to compensate for the terrain, and keep the stanchions vertical. |
 |
|
New Yorkers are always connected.
|
 |
| The First Church of Christ, Scientist. 96th Street and Central Park West. |
 |
|
The tubes heading off to be recycled.
|
 |
|
No souvenirs were allowed.
|
 |
| Behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Near 80th Street and Fifth Avenue, on the east side of the park. |
 |
| I saw this cluster of cops, an EMS truck, and SUV's with dark windows and decided to investigate. |
 |
|
It was the entourage and media frenzy around Christo
and Jeanne-Claude.
|
 |
|
Jeanne-Claude's hair is the same color as the flags.
|
 |
| It looked like they were headed towards this group of volunteers. They were smiling in anticipation. But Christo and Jeanne-Claude turned around before reaching them. |
 |
| They grumbled a bit, but then got back to work with the unfurling. |
 |
| I was able to cut around and catch this shot of them heading back to their SUV. |
 |
| The flags are made from an woven flame-retardant nylon, like something you might find on a construction site. The stanchion are 16 feet tall, the bottoms of the flags are seven feet from the ground. The gates vary from 6 to 18 feet in width. |
 |
|
Volunteers in the southern part of the park, posing
for a photo.
|
 |
|
The Hampshire
House and The Essex
House are in the background.
|
 |
|
Photographers and videographers were everywhere. |
The Gates before the Safron flags were deployed 2/11/05