The L.E.S. Lensman

For those of you like myself who weren't able to attend the screening of "Captured" -- Ben Solomon and Dan Levin's provocative documentary about maverick Lower East Side photographer/artist Clayton Patterson -- a couple of weeks back, the film is now available for buying or renting via either the nefarious channels of Amazon VOD or iTunes. I finally got around to seeing it this week and it is truly gripping. Patterson made an amazing habit of being in the thick of it at all times. Myself and several others may take pretty little pictures of downtown NYC, but Clayton Patterson was on the front lines way back when the E.V./L.E.S. was truly a vastly different place from the bourgeoning hotbed of insanely pricey real estate that it is today. The film pulls very few punches. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Find out more here. I was also bemused to learn that I unknowingly took a picture of Clayon's front door (illustrated by Marcoart's Marco) a number of years back.