Cranes
©2013 Craig Ashby
Digital Photograph

Cranes documents my obsession with construction sites around the city. Giving a pre-disaster look at machinery silhouettes.

In New York it is common for a crane to collapse. The news breaking a few times a year. I don’t think it’s the danger of impending disaster that draws me.

It’s the fear of heights. I have come to grips with most of my fears, but fear of heights still has hold.

It is a funny fear because I love roller coasters. I know it doesn’t make sense but it is so real. When up in high building I have the most intense pain in my legs. Almost like a memory.

When I was hanging out with a crew of nightlife mavens/spiritualists, the kind New York City breeds, they were baffled at this fear. Giving each other knowing glances thinking I didn’t see.

But like everything else they concealed, they would never reveal anything to me. They just kept the information in a tiny pouch most of us call judgement.

Still to this day I have wanted to return to them for one last interrogation. Forcing them to share their opinions about me. 

Maybe to shed some light on why they found me so spiritually repugnant. At the end of the conversation I am certain I would end it with a big fuck off.