Hudson, NY is a strange place. Outwardly it appears simply one of many post-industrial towns along the Hudson River, but it has in its past some interesting history. Unlike most river towns, Hudson made much of its 19th Century fortune in whaling, despite being close to 100 miles from the open ocean. In the 20th Century, it had one of the greatest concentrations of prostitutes on the East Coast. A successful and prosperous city for many years, it was almost selected the capital of New York State. In spite of economic difficulties after the Second World War, it still shows the evidence of that prosperity, with many houses now designated historic buildings. More recently, it has begun to gentrify and revive economically, though this process has been slow and uneven.
We went up a few weeks ago to get lunch at a pizza place we like, and of course to walk around and take some photos. I had B&W in one of my Leicas, but these were all shot on out-of-date Kodak Gold 200 with my Rollei 35. It was overcast, which worked well with color. The palette is reflective of the city itself, with muted colors of a long history offset here and there by splashes of bright new paint applied by those trying effect a revival. While the latter draw the eye more readily, the view is still dominated by what came before.
