"INSIGNIFICANT INDISCRIMINATE SHADOWS"...

Shadows we often over look 

Sometimes it seems as if the Dandelions and Violets are always in the Sun on the other side of the locked fence

"THEY FELL FROM THE SKY" ...

  Birds have played an important role in many of my short ghost stories and other writings.  Birds are also a very vital aural and visual part of our lives, even in the depths of urban cities.  They bring music, color, motion and passion to us.  These are those avian souls that came and went, just as important as any other being on this planet.  These are those spirits that fell from the sky and left their shadow behind.

I was saddened to find this beautiful Mourning Dove on the sidewalk of West Street by the Hudson river on a gorgeous Autumn day in October of 2011.  She had obviously lost her life the night before.  Her soft feathers were of lovely fawn colors with shades of grey-blue and pink iridescence.

This Starling died amongst the rebirth of Spring, surrounded by Daffodils just starting to bloom on a cold day in March.  Very common in cities, I had never noticed the dozens of star-like spots on their black feathers or the blue and green sheen of them that is captured in the suns light.

Bizarre occurances with  Birds...

Dismal Swamp, Virginia...

 A bizarre memory...
  A Black Vulture was sunning on a fallen tree, a bald cypress. We were in a small row boat looking at the spanish moss hanging from the tree branches over the green murky water. Staring at me, it suddenly falls belly flop flat into the water, head underneath. Wings flapping, struggling...  It was seemingly unable to raise its head above the green water it stops struggling and then it just dies right there...

Lower Manhattan... baby House Sparrow...

  The day after my Mother died I was wandering around the east side in a mindless daze.  I stood for a moment at a red light on Bowery to collect my thoughts , it was burning hot and I felt the harsh sun on me.  All of a sudden a baby sparrow fell onto my feet, twisted and writhed and died on my shoe.  I was in shock.  The cruel irony.

Junco at Greenwood...

 It was a frigid winter day with a cloudless sky when we went on an outdoor photo shoot.  We walked through a Zen garden when suddenly a Junco flew right in front of us landing on the cement walk around the water. Then it suddenly just fell over dead.  I picked it up it was still warm and fluffy.  We were flabberghasted.

Mourning Dove on fire escape
 I was watching a mourning dove roosting on my firescape on a cold december morning while decorating my Christmas tree and drinking coffee.  He was all fluffed out and half asleep.  I turned my attention to my tree then looked out my window after hearing a scuffle... I saw nothing.  I finished my tree and lit the lights.  When I went to close the curtains there were a pair of wings on the fire escape with blood on the sockets.  How and why did this happen so quickly?  Nothing but his wings were left behind.

Green Heron on lily pad
  I was fishing on a lazy day in small bay of the lake filled with fragrant water lilys.  I saw a small green heron land on a large pad close to me.  He went into a freezing position, when suddenly something below grabbed him with lightning speed pulling him under never to be seen again.  It happened so quickly that Im still not sure that it did.

Hummer in a spider web
 I was standing on my Aunts old porch on the farm when I could see something moving mid air on the other side of the open deck.  I went across to find a large bundle of something stuck in a giant spider web.  I took it out gently but it was too late, it was still dead  It was a ruby throated hummingbird.

This poor soul must have been struck by a vehicle late at night. Pigeons or Rock Doves are so maligned, but I love them because they bring nature and life to the inner cities where most birds won't venture. 

"HAUNTED INTERIORS" ......

The ruins of many former haunts in the city can still  be found, although rarely, as they are rapidly disappearing, and being replaced with cold and ugly Condominiums, after sitting abandoned for many years.  Only the shadows and the echoes remain.  These are the Ghost Images of some of the former haunts of my characters from my blog-book "Acting out in Manhattan".

This Disco ball still glittering, even after its decades long slumber,  hangs on from the ceiling of a long abandoned building, that was once not only one of the most notorious after-hours clubs in New York City, but also in the whole world.

An old haunt 25 years later.  I snuck into what was once the famous St Marks Revival Theater, to take these photos of the old screen and cinema areas.  I can still recall seeing classic film noir on the big, wide screen, all while living the film of my life at that time, which I have written about in my blog book "Acting Out in Manhattan".

The long empty apartments of a building that I used to live in by the East River, many years ago.  It almost seems impossible that any building can sit empty like a ghost house in the Manhattan of today, but I entered the slightly open door to find it sitting abandoned just like it was in the late 1990's.  Very strange, eerie, as if time had not gone by at all and the building was waiting for its former tenants to return to it.

Copyright @ 2015 By Fritz Von Ludwigslust  All Rights Reserved


MORE HAUNTED IMAGES TO COME SOON ......  

"NIGHT-BLOOM" ......

"Night-Blooms" ......  they can be found everywhere in the city, growing wild in old lots, abandoned gardens, around building foundations, and even sprouting out of cracks in the sidewalk and asphalt.  They are often over looked, like the shadows and the echoes of the ghosts and spirits of the urban past.  Each one here reminds me of, or represents the many different and colorful characters from my book-blog "Acting Out in Manhattan". They are especially enchanting and mystical (also like the charcters from "Acting Out ......"), when seen late in the night by Moon or street-lamp light and they all symbolize something different.

"Pretty-Poison"   The beautiful but deadly flower of one of the worlds most dangerous plants, the "Angels-Trumpet".   Datura symbolizes   "deceitful charms" .

Belladonna cousin Bittersweet  Night-shade is a toxic feral botanical that represents falsehood and insincerity.  It can be found creeping up fences, walls and other host plants.

Clethra or Summersweet looks like a Ghost-plant, that stands stiff in the city night.

Waxy clusters of putrid smelling Privet blossoms, that represent prohibition and prophecy.

 

Beautiful and lustrous Lilac flowers, symbolize the first emotions of love.

                               
 

Luminous Autumn Asters, still lush and blossoming after several heavy frosts, stir emotions of remembrance and after-thought.

                                         
                                                                                 

                       

 Sunburst spike that glows in the city night.  The famous Golden-rod from our youths, of countryside roads and powerlines which oddly symbolizes both encouragement and precaution.

The Black Nightshade shown above, is another toxic and deadly cousin of the infamous Belladonna.  It can be found throughout the city, sprouting out of sidewalk cracks and waste soil by parking lots and side streets.  It also symbolizes falsehood and nightmares like other Solanums.

Echinachea or Purple Cone Flower, symbolize strength and immunity.

Wild Evening Primrose is another feral plant that has taken to the city.  Like small cups of Moonbeams it glows in the urban night.  The Primrose symbolizes inconstancy and fickleness.

Twin blossoms of Ipomoea, or Moon-Flower, a nocturnal blooming vine that I found growing up over an abandoned building,  The large, flat, palm sized flowers are snow white and intoxicating.  The seeds are hallucinogenic but can also be toxic.  It is also known as Moon vine, indicative of the flowers which symbolize the Moon and its effects on dreams and love.





The city seems to be a virtual apothecary of medicinal flowers and plants growing as weeds from every nook and cranny of cement and pavement.  Albeit many are toxic and deadly poison,  (also like many of the characters from "Acting Out in Manhattan"), when not used properly.










Copyright @ 2015   All Photographs and captions by Fritz Von Ludwigslust.  All Rights Reserved.

FILM NOIR NIGHT FALL

A winter sun-set, over the dark and mysterious waters of the Hudson river.  A view that may have been the last vision seen by the characters Merlin and Cosmos, from my "Acting out" blog-book.

The sentinel-like lanterns glow like ghosts, after midnight in a park in the city.  Strange shadows can be seen acting out their roles and playing the game, amongst the dark corners of the Island-like patch of shady greenery deep in the night.

Smoke that appears to be like a spirit or phantom of the past, spirals up into the city sky from the darkness below the pavement.

A haunting view from a roof-top facing the East river in lower Manhattan.

A frozen Winter Moon, hangs over the city like a ghost that sees all in the dead hours of the night

A lone car passes slowly, and stops in a desolate area under a bridge by the East river.  Only the lunar orb  above knows what may have transpired in those moments during that eerie night.

The World Trade Center glows like a phantom on a luminous Winter night in December of 1999, down by the Hudson river and a windswept, desolate waterfront area of appearances and disappearances in the city.

The skeleton of the entrance to the pier where the survivors of the Titanic were brought back to, stands like a monument to the spirits of Manhattan, past, present and those spirits still to come.

An empty park bench in the ghostly hours of the night, looks like a scene from any film noir movie set in a big city.  It always appears as if something melo-dramatic and strange has, or will happen.  I can still see the characters from my blog-book "Acting Out", Romeo, Miriam and Puck haunting this park late at night.

Dock strip, after midnight , a full Moon.  It truly is a "River of No Return", in many, many ways.

The large white Hydrangeas are illuminated in the nocturnal light of a solitary street lantern in the middle of the night.  The scene is set for  lust, scandal, betrayal, over the top drama and mysterious disappearances in the city.

No, that is not snow on the ground in this eerie portrait of an empty city park at night.  It is actually several inches of green "powder", or pollen from Pagoda trees.  It looks like a scene from the 1944 classic "Curse of the Cat People".  This small urban park took on a ghostly aura that night, with the almost neon-green like snow glistening in the lamp post lights.






Copyright  @ 2015.   All photographs and captions by Fritz Von Ludwigslust.  All Rights Reserved.

"IMAGES OF GHOST STORIES OF NEW YORK CITY"

 It always exists, we just can not see it all the time.  It is that silent other world of another dimension.  It is the land of the shadows of what is, and every single object on our Earth has a shadow.  These shadows are the ying-yang of their host, and are always there, with or without the Sun, the Moon, the Stars or artificial light.  Only those with a connection to those on the other side,  can "go" to this other land,  in their sleep and dreams, and only when they are taken there by those spirits who dwell in the shadows.
   I have written many true ghost stories, (On my other blog-book "Acting out in Manhattan"  "Ghost Stories of New York City"), of those that vanished mysteriously in this city, and now I will try to show the images from these tales from Shadow-land



Copyright @ 2015. By Fritz Von Ludwigslust.  All Rights Reserved
All Photographs, Captions and Actual Concept by Fritz.