Kyria Abrahams's Blog

While Augmented Reality glasses are not available for consumer use in 2015, many people might be surprised to know that AR Goggles have been already successfully applied in pilot programs for “desk-less workers” (people who work with their hands and whose workload would benefit from being able to put down handheld devices), such as HPs Visual Remote Guidance program.
To read more, visit TechAloft.

Ingredients for Graham and Molly's WWF Bouncy Castle Punk Bluegrass Wedding With Super Mario
1 part Vermont Farm1 part wrestling belts
1 part Television Trivia 1 part Super Mario Brothers Cupcake Cake by Baked by Melissa1 part Bouncy Castle
Hire Fat Wreck Chords signed Punk Bluegrass band Old Man Markley to be your wedding band. Wear wrestling belts. Ask guests to answer trivia questions in order to earn a turn at the buffet. Dance like nobody's business. Jump in bouncy castle.  Radiate love. Serves 2. 
All photos copyright Kyria Abrahams.
Contact kyriaabrahams @ gmail.com or visit http://www.kyriaabrahamsphoto.com for inquiries



















    

Extra photos taken for Michael Stahl's article "The Twilight of the Guardian Angels" as published in Narratively on November 18, 2013 as part of their Watching Over New York week.

Photos in Brownsville were taken at Marcus Garvey Village during a candlelight vigil for a one-year-old boy who was killed by gunfire.

Photos in The Bronx were taken at Fort Apache, the Guardian Angels training center and dojo.

Other photos were taken in upper Manhattan during a volunteer event for school children.

A whimsical and elegant ceremony ending with a bicycle carriage ride in Hamilton Park. Congratulations Cheryl and Russell!

Update: The story was picked up by The Atlantic Wire today. 

Today, I had my first piece on Narrative.ly in which I both interviewed and photographed the subject. Although I have been lucky enough to shoot photos for a few stories for Narrative.ly in the past, I'm just a little extra excited about this, because this is the first story that I both wrote and shot. Also, it's about penises. Win-Win-Win! 
Read it here: The Phallus Palace

Now, I don't say this often, but it was an honor and a privilege to see this man's dick.

To the collector, thank you so much for inviting us into your home and for your subsequent friendship.

To the left, is a portrait of the collector as a young man, in his party days, standing against the same wall on which the photo hangs. Dig those Jim Morrison-esque pants. The Velvet Goldmine, baby!

Here are a few more photos from his home/museum that didn't make it into the story due to space constraints. Enjoy a further walk through the Musee de Cock!

(All photos are copyright Kyria Abrahams and Narratively, so please credit us if you use them.)





A table in the kitchen.

Kitchen hooks.

A pussy lounging with penises.

Toys in the "Man Room". Anatomically correct toys. Call me.


A custom cabinet handle.

The bathroom.

A rare Star Wars collectable card in which C-3PO is well-endowed.

Low-hanging fruit in the entrance to the living room.


Penises and Dada

The living room.
The Duchamp.
Penis frog-type beings of some kind.
Tribal art in the living room. To light your way. Wood in wood.

Coyote sends his penis out into the world. Like ya do!

Yup. That.

Not even sure how to caption this one.

Alan Cumming's cologne: Cumming.

Dicks with tits.

You can't buy this in Spencer Gifts.


The main display in the living room.
Some devils having sex.
The Japanese art. A custom-made lamp.
A penis with drawers.

The collector wishes to remain anonymous.

Head-on trout. People in trout heads. Get your tail in gear and head upstate for the 10th annual Livingston Manner Trout Parade!

I'm not entirely sure why it exists, but I'm so very happy it does. It is certainly one of the most unpretentious fish-related parades I've ever been to (sorry, Mermaid Parade!) This is real fishing town (Roscoe, New York is affectionately known as "Trout Town") and they aren't carrying those poles ironically. 
The brand new health food store in town can cater to all your vegan needs, but with the sidewalk trout roll vendors, this is definitely more of pescetarian-friendly celebration. 

As such, I recommend topping the experience off in the form of a plate of Trout Almondine from The Rockland House —where they still have the same decorations up from a wedding that happened three years ago. Hey, they are nice decorations, I see no reason to remove them, either. 

I'm no fisherman, but I know a good parade when I see one. I also know a good salad bar when I see one, and The Rockland House has it going on. You know that bean salad with the wax beans in it? Yeah, that. 
Here are some photos from the day to give you a taste of what you'll see if you head to Livingston Manner next year in June.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

(click on any image to start a slideshow)






















































All photos copyright 2013 Kyria Abrahams. Please email me if you want to reprint them. You are welcome to reprint them if you credit me, but just drop me a line and let me know: kyriaabrahams @ gmail.

George "Lolin" Ossario
It's Obscure Sports Week on Narrative.ly!

It was 8 am on the Sunday just before Memorial Day, and my boyfriend Marcus and I were catching a bus in Hoboken. We headed to the Bronx to photograph the big game: the Memorial Day Stickball Tournament played on the cross-streets at Stickball Boulevard.

Marcus was born raised in Union City, NJ, the offspring of two first generation Puerto Rican parents. Still, while eating pork with rice, listening to Salsa music, and watching players hit line drives, he was forced to exclaim: "This is the most Puerto Rican thing I've ever done in my life."

Mike Stahl wrote a great piece on the players old and new, contrasting the way it used to be with the way it is now. It's called Love the Huddle and it was published today on Narrative.ly.

Here are some extra photos from the day. I really enjoyed documenting the day and chatting with some of the old-timers.

Read Michael Stahl's full story here: Love the Huddle on Narrative.ly.

All photos are copyright 2013, Kyria Abrahams and Narrative.ly. They may not be reprinted without permission.

The ubiquitous sticks.


Ricardo Torres, Jr. up at bat.


In memorial.


What a line drive!


That player was OUT!

Lolin with fans.

Ricardo Torres, Jr. is teased by his dad.


Spectators.

Invested in the game.

Arthur from Puerto Rico.

Street Art.

The catch.

Put me in, coach!

Stickball-specific speakers.

Old school meets new school.

Chains.

Ricardo Torres, Jr. after a line drive.




Pointing to the past.

Tito Puente is in this photo!
9/11 memorial.


Keeping score.


Batter up, Lolin.

Best seat in the house.

Merch table.

Reserved.
Spontaneous Salsa!
Check out the rest of the photos and the story at Narrative.ly.

Click any photo to start a slideshow..

All photos are copyright 2013, Kyria Abrahams and Narrative.ly. 

Mr. Softee -- A Bird's Eye View


Gus Elefantis - Your local Mr. Softee!So much free ice cream! Michael Stahl wrote a tasty piece on his Mr. Softee in Astoria for the Ode to Summer week at Narrative.ly.

Gus Elefantis has been working the same route for 27 years! That's a lot of sprinkles.

Read The Inside Scoop on Narrative.ly.

Also make sure you also check out The Reveal, a behind-the-scenes essay where Michael wrote a touching "Ode to Upper Ditmars." This is a must-read for anyone from Astoria or any outer borough!

Below are some extra photos from the day. Thanks for the ice cream, Gus!















The author, pictured on right, eats his profits.








Distracted by deliciousness.


Safety first! Gus helps the girls cross the street!




How it's done.



A man and his truck.
Under the hood.

That first dollar.

SPRINKLES!!

Top Secret Controls.

Making people happy.
All photos are copyright 2013, Kyria Abrahams and Narrative.ly

I have a tendency to be overly ambitious. In elementary school, this resulted in a lot of unfinished inventions, like the time I tried to attach a pen light to a velcro sneaker so you could "see where you were walking in the dark."

So when Shanda from We Are the Wilderness, contacted me about headshots earlier this year, I was determined to make up for my fourth grade mistakes with the Night Sneaker ™  and set things right in the world. 

I told Shanda I saw the band as steampunk-ish gypsies, mysteriously lounging in the woods like actors on a set, like they were waiting for you. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus meets The Proposition during a Sakura Cherry Blossom Festival.

Unfortunately, she just kept saying it all sounded perfect. I had run my mouth off and was now stuck making it happen.

All I knew was what I couldn't do. I couldn't create the equivalent of a Shakespeare in the Park theater set in Prospect or Astoria Park because the cops would kick us out faster than you can get pepper sprayed for saying "Hey, the meth head across the street is actually committing a violent crime, but please, send four officers to this local band shoot!" 

Thankfully, my friend Erik is a wonderful NYC history buff who can practically recite The Power Broker by heart. He hooked me up with deets on a top-secret prime location that is most definitely not a bike trail in Queens.

In order to procure the set pieces, I paid a visit to Build it Green -- an epic salvage yard at the edge of Astoria. This is the kind of place where you can buy a casket, a toilet, a marble fireplace mantle, and a wind turbine and still have money left over for five half-used cans of paint.

Meanwhile, Shanda was texting me photos the clothing she was picking up from Mandate of Heaven Clothing, a vegan-friendly fashion line out of Brooklyn. I guess you could say we were literally making sure the curtains would match the drapes.

I went home and hot-glued pieces of glass and an alarm clock to a broken coat rack. I spent two days trying to figure out how to get a Speedlight and a Pocket Wizard to stay put inside a paper lantern without ripping. But the whole time, I was secretly freaking the f*ck out. I mean, THIS was in my kitchen...

Either a good idea or a horrible, horrible, art school mistake.

I was asking myself what the hell I was doing, if any of this was even going to show up in a photo. Worst of all, my biggest fear was that I just didn't have the skill or experience to pull off the ideas in my head.

I was so nervous, I even diagrammed the entire shoot in Photoshop layers. Yes, I photoshopped pictures of clamps onto a picture of a tree. It got that weird.

In the end, my OCD diagramming at least seemed to save everyone some time. The set was put together in 30 minutes, I knew exactly how the ropes would tie. No one waited, so there was no weird energy. The shoot peaked at sunset, just like we'd timed it. But most importantly, the band was happy.

Even though I spent a lot of time building a set, ultimately, my job was just to take a picture of a band and have it represent their personality.

Here's an awesome video of theirs that you should watch, followed by some shots of mine. It's interesting how different the styling and look in the video is from my photos. Two different takes on an amazing sound!


            



















Shanda's clothes by Mandate of Heaven

I'm not sure what is going on with blogger, but, clearly all my photos are missing.

I will get to fixing this shortly.

Until then, here is a photo of dresses by Tim Walker, followed by a monkey in a shearling coat.