(artist unknown, picture taken from display window)
Soho is a nice place to wander. I work in the area, and am usually eager to get away from my job for my lunch hour, so I walk around to the coffee shops, in search of a restaurant I can afford to eat in.
The people are of a few types.
The tourists are easy enough to recognize, they mostly have cameras, wearing white socks with shorts, traveling in familial groups, both nuclear and partial-extended, and seem to be looking for the next gallery or art store, unable to tell the difference, though admittedly in Soho there is very little. If you encounter these groups, either approaching or attempting to overtake, it is best to step into the street. They move like an amorphous blob and are always doing so at about half the speed you are, or less. Sometimes you can shoot the narrows and make it right through the middle of the group as they are oftentimes undecided on where to go next and the mother and father will conveniently wish to move in opposite directions.
Then there are the young model hopefuls. They are usually very young women, perhaps 18 or 19, always dressed as if they have much bigger plans ahead of them, always by themselves, much time spent on their makeup, unable to walk gracefully in the heels they are wearing, without any direction and even less money. They usually seem to be looking past everyone on the street, off into the distance, as if the photo-shoot was already occurring. These girls are not ugly, but they are also neither very pretty, but most of them have a unique look about them that they've been advised is what it really takes to get noticed as a model, and that is precisely what they hope to do. They are usually found on Prince and Spring streets, heading east then uncertainly west, they are rarely seen on Broadway.
There are other types, of course. Perhaps in a later post....
There are some great window displays in Soho, with refreshing things to look at, and buy. It is sometimes difficult to believe that this neighborhood was the center of the 80's art market, though the inflationary part is easy to understand, the collapse. As Robert Hughes once remarked, "Soho is the only place in the world that an art dealer will still use the word avant-garde without smirking." I couldn't find the exact quote, but it is something like that. Is that called paraphrasing, or just poor research?
Walking into an "art store" in Soho is quite an experience, they go to great lengths to preserve the idea that what they are doing is vital, when it is really just an overblown poster store, not that different from what you'd find in any mall across the country, though much more expensive, as they deal in "originals." I find it difficult to believe that any serious art collectors spend much of their time in Soho, though I'm sure there are a few remnant dealers left over from the 80's still wowing their clientele with stories of excess and pomp. Though I would assume that these dealers no longer have storefronts, if they ever did at all.
But it is a nice place to wander. The people are often good looking and well-dressed, there are plenty of good coffee shops, and tiny restaurants, bakeries, lots of interesting book stores to browse into, and no shortage of break-out starlets and soon-to-be glamorous models. It is too bad about me having to work, I might have done so well as a talent scout, photographer, coffee distributor, art maven, street artist, or else.
(Soho window display)
