The New York subway system mimics the city in many ways. It’s noisy, crowded, a little run down, a little grubby, and in need of some tender loving care. That said it still works, rattling, squealing and snaking beneath the streets like a giant alien worm.

So we took the 5 from 149th and 3rd downtown to Central Park North (see how we have blended right in to the Bronx), scoped the Met, the Guggenheim, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, all the time drifting in and out of the park. We also tried the Knish and Giant Pretzel from the street vendors and pronounced them less than average.

One other thing we did was check out the Frick collection which, from what I can see, is a collection of very old photographs by novice photographers who, for reasons I will never understand, have achieved some notoriety. Mr. Frick, who lived in a very big house just off Fifth Avenue, collected hundreds of these pics plus other stuff over many years probably to impress his friends. Or maybe he just enjoyed early photographs.

Photography is banned in the Frick Museum so this is a small sample of what you would see if you took photos.

Theo Rousseau’s the road to town definitely shows promise.

Tom Gainsborough’s best friend.

Pierre Renoir’s mum and kids.

Pete Rubens. He needs to sharpen his game a little. I mean, look at the collar on this guy.

Joey Turner. He’s big on boats and has clicked a beauty here.

Jimmy Whistler took this one . Not his Mum obviously.

Frank Boucher. I like this, good contrast depth of field etc.

Johnny Constable’s church picture. The trees get in the way a bit, but not bad.

Tony van Dyck. Not a bad effort.

Claude (Oscar) Monet’s offering. A little washed out perhaps?

Gio Bellini’s whats the fuss about

In conclusion, I’m with Gio on this, I don’t see what the fuss is about either.

Lyndal, if you ever see this blog you will notice that none of your famous early photographers used black and white film. Just saying that’s all!