"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.