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Tom Scola

@heyscola.bsky.social

441 followers 266 following 452 posts

Photographer, Brooklyn Buffista

Posts Replies Media

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 14h

West Village, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

A fancy-looking garage door along the side of a fancy modern building in the West Village.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Clinton Hill, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

The first in a diptych. A mailbox sits on the sidewalk outside of a group of apartments in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. A graffito saying “ROMANCE ISN’T DEAD” is written on it.

The second in a diptych. A mailbox sits on the sidewalk outside of a group of apartments in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. A graffito saying “Failure to grasp an Humanitarian.” is written on it.

Reposted by Tom Scola

JLP @jlp.systems · 26/09/2026

oblique strategies

a sign by a paved path that says “STAY OFF COURSE”

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Wallabout, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

On a loading dock sits several beverage containers, and someone’s discarded lunch. There are two paper coffee cups, and a beer bottle and beer can. On one of the coffee cups the word “Espresso” is written, but it’s an 8 ounce cup, which seems a little excessive for an espresso. Behind it is a 12oz can of Olde English 800 malt liquor. Must have been a hell of a party.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Downtown Brooklyn, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

The entrance to a parking garage in Downtown Brooklyn. In the foreground are a couple of traffic barriers, behind them is the entrance, which leads to a ramp to the second floor, with the warning 5MPH→ spray painted on a wall.

I know that people shoot film because it gives their photography a sense of authenticity, but I should point out that this photo was heavily edited in a photo editor. You see, the interior of the garage in the background came out far too dark in my scan, so I used an editor to dodge that section of the frame. It was the first time I seriously used an editor in that way, and it took me a little while to figure everything out, and I was pretty pleased with the results.

Does that make the photograph fake somehow? I did digitally the same kind of edit that someone printing in an analog darkroom would routinely make. It’s part of the artistic process. When you shoot, the light doesn’t always behave the way you want it to, and sometimes you have to improve on it.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Brad Lander @bradlander.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Toward t’shuvah this Yom Kippur: An honest reckoning with our transgressions

bradlander.substack.com

Toward t’shuvah this Yom Kippur: An honest reckoning with our transgressions

It’s a classic Yom Kippur joke: During Kol Nidre services the rabbi raises his arms to the heavens and cries out, “Oh God, before You I am nothing!” The cantor, upon seeing this, beats his chest and s...

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Red Hook, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

A chainlink fence blocks off a vacant lot in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Behind the chainlink are pieces of particle board, to block off the view. Creeping vines cover a portion of the fence. In some spots, you can see some of the leaves starting to turn red, indicating that this scene is on the precipice of autumn. In fact, this photo was taken six years ago to the day, 20 Sept, 2020. If you go to this same spot today, you will probably see *no* red leaves, giving a hint of how the climate has changed even over six years.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Red Hook, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

On a street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a home, covered in red vinyl siding and with a white door, sits next to an empty lot. The lot’s fencing is consumed entirely by thick green vines, such that ½ of the frame is red, and ½ is green. A plant identifier on the Internet tells me that this is hops, which I am suspicious of, but would be cool if true. I wonder if any of the local breweries used this site for forage. This lot, which has sat empty for decades and decades, is now being filled with expensive condos, to be completed next year. And the red house, sadly, has been drafted into the Conspiracy to Remove Color. The vinyl siding has been removed, and the home is now painted beige, and partially covered in grey formstone.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

The first in a diptych of Things in Front of a Corrugated Metal Fence in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Growing out of a crack in the sidewalk in front of a fence is a tree. Paulownia tomentosa, an invasive species. It obviously likes its new home in the New World, because It has grown to an astonishing height of over two meters in one season. This photo, taken in the late summer, shows the giant leaves starting to wilt. Left to grow on its own during the pandemic, this tree would eventually be uprooted and would not return the next season.

The second in a diptych of Things in Front of a Corrugated Metal Fence in Red Hook, Brooklyn. In front of the fence is a red supermarket shopping cart. This cart was probably absconded by an unhoused person, but I doubt anyone cared a whole lot, since the supermarket where this cart originated went out of business during the height of the pandemic a few months earlier. Growing out of cracks in the sidewalk are huge clumps of crabgrass, which, like the previous photo in this series, shows that the owner of this lot weren’t too concerned with the upkeep of their property during the pandemic.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Tom Taylor @tomtaylormade.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

A word from Batman. We have Detective Comics 1113 out today, continuing the Batman: Bad Seeds event. The brilliant Jeff Spokes joins us on art as Batman tries to save the people of Gotham from the orders of a corrupt and cruel police commissioner.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Red Hook, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

The rusted metal façade of an industrial building in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Some bits of metallic grey show through, but most of it is covered in thick, deep red rust, and layers of painted graffiti. On the left is a concrete ledge, and sitting on the ledge is a pink empty bottle of sparkling sangria. This photo was taken on a Sunday, so some people must have had a fun time partying on the streets the previous evening.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

Gowanus, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

A commercial building next to a residential building in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The residential building is from the Nineteenth Century. The corner of the building is framed with a cast-iron column, embossed with the name of the manufacturer at the bottom: Howell & Saxtan of 353 Adams St. The building on the left is a laundromat. Its window is closed off with a rolling gate, and an exhaust pipe sits below the window. In between the two buildings, a weed juts out from a crack in the sidewalk, with a long stem and a few leaves at its very top, barely clinging to life.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Gowanus, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

In a toxic industrial neighborhood of Brooklyn, an abandoned warehouse sits next to an empty brownfield. The fencing around the field is rusted and starting to fall over. A few sheets of corrugated metal, painted grey, are attached to the fence, ready to fall off at any time. A single graffito is scrawled on the metal, in bright red spraypaint. I guess it’s the street artist’s name, but it also kind of looks like a duck. Behind the fence there are thick vines and weeds.

The building next to the lot was once covered in graffiti, too, but the brick façade has been painted over many times in various shades of orange, red, and pink, giving it the appearance of a Rothko painting.

All this would be torn down in 2022, to make way for a ginormous apartment building, which is still under construction.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Gowanus, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

One of the few remaining pay phones in New York City. Probably hasn’t been functional for over a decade. Covered in stickers. The frame it sits in is dented and misshapen. Surrounded by vines, wilting in the late summer heat.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Gowanus, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

A grey metal door with a shiny brass mail slot is blocked by a rusted metal pantograph gate. The door frame is painted sky blue, and the brickwork to the left of the door is painted orange-yellow. Another dark grey rolling gate is to the right of the door. The sun shines down from above, projecting a latticework shadow on the scene.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Greenpoint, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

A rolling gate covers a small door to an industrial building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The concrete walls are a stark white, which makes the brightly-colored graffiti stand out even more. On the right edge of the frame there is a much bigger rolling gate to a garage for large trucks to roll in and out of. There is some street art painted on that gate which looks interesting, but you can’t see most of it because it is cut off from the frame. I have decided to focus on the uglier and more chaotic graffiti next to it instead.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Greenpoint, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

A temporary construction trailer sits along a street corner in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. It is surrounded by bright orange water-filled construction barriers, signaling to the world: do not crash into this structure! Stay away! Some of the barriers have flashing orange lights mounted on them, to make the warning even more imperative.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Sunset Park, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

As with the previous photo in this series, this depicts a scene underneath an overpass of an off-ramp to the Gowanus Expressway. This is a graffiti-covered concrete wall. The sun shines down from the top right of the frame, and the overpass casts a diagonal shadow, bisecting the frame such that the top left is in shadow, and the bottom right is in bright sunlight. Meanwhile, the ground itself slopes down from left to right, creating another diagonal line at a complementary angle to the shadow to provide compositional harmony. Even the art painted on the wall slopes downward to match the slope of the ground. Near the bottom right of the frame sits an abandoned a desk. Also, several unmatched shoes lie strewn across the ground. The concrete wall itself has vertical ridges carved into it, and to the right of the overpass is a chainlink fence.

This very spot was once a vibrant section of a neighborhood filled with homes and shops and people on the street, and now it is dead space filled with garbage, imposed on the neighborhood by Robert Moses.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Sunset Park, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

Underneath an elevated off-ramp to the Gowanus Expressway. There is a large support pillar, consisting of steel plates, painted green, and held together with an absurd number of rivets. The ground the pillar rests on is slanted downward, and is paved with cobblestones. The sun beats down from above, leaving the top half of the pillar in shadow. Above, the imposing steel framework of the roadway looms overhead.

The Gowanus Expressway is a massively out-of-scale viaduct inflicted on the city by Robert Moses, bringing pollution, noise, and a overwhelming sense of dread to the people who live near its path. Its as if Moses saw the Fascist art of Italian Futurism and decided he would be the one to bring it to life, and stamp his boot down on the populace with a force even greater than the Futurists could ever imagine.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Welcome to Bluesky. Please familiarize yourself with the following accounts to understand the range of opinions it is acceptable to express (h/t @alexjaffe.bsky.social)

Batman and Robin view their rogues gallery on the Bat Computer screen.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Sunset Park, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

A covered car sits on a driveway/lawn in front of a two-car garage. Behind the garage is a modest residential building. This is the opposite configuration than most of the buildings in this neighborhood (or most of the city, really). Most of the time, a townhouse sits on the front of the lot, which opens to a private garden in the rear. But occasionally, you see instances where the owner placed the garden in the front of the lot, and the building in the far rear, I guess in a bid for more privacy. Over time, one of the owners decided they were done with a garden, and fully embraced the suburban dream of a two-car garage, right in the middle of the big city. Except that now, it looks like the original intent of the garage has been abandoned. Instead of parking their car in the garage, it now sits in front of the garage, covered for long-term storage.

Reposted by Tom Scola

FT @fucktheory.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Imagine being talented and beautiful and rich and famous and still the most noteworthy thing about you is how good a person you are.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

A big green dumpster sits askew on the sidewalk in front of a red firehouse. In the blue sky above, white fluffy cumulus clouds float above the dumpster like it was topped with whipped cream. The dumpster was covered with graffiti, but someone went to great effort to try to erase and/or paint over it, making the dumpster look like a big green Rothko painting.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Photograph of a graffiti-covered rolling gate and brick wall with a sign warning about rat poison stuck to the wall. If you recall, this is more or less the exact same description of my previous photograph in this series. The elements are all the same, but now they are arranged in a different pattern; the gate runs horizontally across the top of the frame instead of vertically along the side. The palette is different; this time the colors are navy blue, red, white, and yellow instead of green an purple. But mostly, when I go to industrial areas of Bushwick, I know exactly what I’m looking for, and Bushwick has it in spades.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Close-up photograph of a rolling gate on a building in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The gate, and the brick wall next to it is covered with brightly-colored street art, but it has started to fade and flake away. Looking into the history of this scene in Street View, it looks like this particular art was painted c. 2015, so it seems a little sad that the paint job is in such rough shape after less than five years. The palette, though, is a spectacular purple and green, rendered even more intensely in the direct sunlight. A lot of photographers *hate* working in direct sunlight. Those photographers are cowards. Taped to the wall over the purple and green is a pink sign warning that the area is treated with rodent bait. The art painted on the gate itself is less colorful than the art on the wall, but the light striking the textured surface is even more dramatic. The frame of the gate is covered with stickers for rolling gate repair services, as all rolling gates in the city are.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Close-up photograph of the front façade of a home in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. The building is clad in yellow aluminum siding, which kind of sucks as a siding material, because as you can see here, it dents quite easily. And this siding is quite dented. Also, dirty and stained. The siding also has faux wood grain embossed onto it, which makes it look kitschy, especially as the sun shines down on it from above making it stand out even more. There is a green sticker applied to one of the aluminum slats, indicating that the (unseen) container below it is for recycling. One can imagine that this siding is so dented from years of garbage cans being banged into it. Above the sticker is a front window, covered in iron bars, with an air conditioner unit sticking out of it. The sun beating down on the metal cage casts diagonal shadows across the scene.

This photograph illustrates the sad beauty of decay, and the extremely tight, formal framing is meant to surround the scene, and appear as if it is trying to hold everything together and prevent its inevitable collapse. Just as the photographer himself must constantly hold his emotions in check and prevent his whole world from collapsing around him.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Photograph of a wall of a building in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The brick wall is painted teal, seemingly freshly-painted, because there hasn’t been much graffiti applied to it yet. To the right is what seems to be a lovely bit of street art, but mostly it is cropped out of the picture. In front of the wall is a large exhaust pipe, covered in stickers and graffiti. To the left is a rolling gate, covered in stickers advertising emergency rolling gate services, and some more street art, which looks mostly faded. Above is a fire escape, which we can’t see, but we can see the shadow of the escape ladder projected onto the wall. One small bit of graffiti on the wall is a message telling readers to WEAR A FUCKING MASK, but unfortunately, too many people at the time went insane and refused to heed those important words.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Close-up photograph of a graffiti-filled wall in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. The surface is rusted sheet metal, and no matter how many layers of graffiti are painted on the surface, the orange-red of the rust seeps through, giving the whole frame of lines, shapes, and colors a soothing peach-colored cast. The whole picture is quite abstract—much more abstract than I usually photograph. The framing is too tight to make sense of almost any of the writing, except there is a legible bit of writing in the lower right corner: LIFE SUCKS. BURGER HELPS. This profoundly lucid bit of wisdom provides an extreme contrast to the overall abstractness of the photograph.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Bushwick, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Photograph of a graffiti-covered corrugated metal fence along a street corner in Bushwick, Brooklyn. In the foreground, along the right side of the frame is a telephone pole, covered in flyers, most of which are partially torn down, or have faded beyond legibility, advertising some event which has long past. It’s impossible to see what is behind the fence, but a shiny metal exhaust pipe sticks up ominously. In spite of all the neglect and decay depicted in the photograph, it nonetheless evokes feelings of joy from all the sunshine, blue sky, and bright colors of the graffiti, rendered with intensity by the UltraMax.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Ridgewood, Queens #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Photograph of a coin-operated car vacuum at a gas station in Ridgewood, Queens. The vacuum cleaner itself is a stainless steel cylinder, sitting on a concrete pedestal, and for some reason is wearing a jaunty green cap, making the contraption look quite dapper. There is a hook at the top that says HANG HOSE HERE, but of course the hose was left lying on the ground. Behind the vacuum are two shipping containers, stacked on top of each other, and colored a dull brown and pink. Each is covered in graffiti tags, as all shipping containers left in urban industrial areas inevitably are. Along with the hose there is a bit of trash lying on the ground, and a weed grows out of a seam in the concrete sidewalk.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Carroll Gardens, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

Photograph of the front façade of a bodega in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. The bodega’s wall is covered in bright red paneling, but most of the walls and windows are covered in advertisements for beer and cider. You can see a little bit inside of the bodega, where there are cardboard boxes of beer, and also, weirdly, a Santa figure, even though this photograph was taken in August. Above the window is the remnants of a tattered cloth awning. This is a quite sad place, and I can assure you that the interior of the bodega is even more disgusting than the exterior. Yet the bright red color ultimately rescues the photograph from being completely dreary and disheartening.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Carroll Gardens, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #ProImage100

Photograph of a closed storefront in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. The entire front of the store is closed off by rolling gates. This would normally make the scene look dystopian and depressing, but here, the gates are painted in strips of jaunty colors! I see orange, blue, pink, yellow, and teal. A big win against the conspiracy to remove color everywhere.

This is an unusual photograph from me in that it is cropped. I normally try to compose my shots in-camera as much as possible. Composing in-camera and not cropping is one of the main practices that improved my photography immensely. But here, I had to lop off the right part of the frame, changing the aspect ration from the normal 35mm 2:3 to 5:7. This improved the compositional harmony of the frame immensely. The right part of the frame was just dead space that added nothing to the photo. I could have just walked closer to the subject and composed the building tighter, but that would have involved me standing in the middle of Smith Street while taking the picture, which would have been a stupid thing to do. So I had to crop in post instead.

So, anyway, if you want to get better at photography, get into the habit of composing your photos in-camera, and not cropping in post. It will improve your ability to look for photography subjects in the field, and the end product will be better. Pre-visualization, they call it, although I think that’s a stupid term. But also, crop when you gotta crop.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Lori 💙🧡 Knicks in 5 🏆🗽 @nylori.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

Coming to NYC restaurants Knicks in 5 #KnicksSky

Reposted by Tom Scola

Julia Is Waving, Not Drowning @booktweeting.bsky.social · 02/08/2026

I have never wanted to be a different kind of mammal more than I do right now being able to roll myself into an armored sphere would fix me

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Cobble Hill, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

Black and white photograph of a window to a home of a brick building in the Cobble Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. The photograph is absolutely infested with wabi-sabi: The bricks are old and uneven since the building has settled since it was originally built in 1843. At one point in this building’s long history the façade was painted, but it has long since faded away, leaving only a few flakes of paint here and there. There is a vine crawling up the side of the window, giving what would be an incredibly boring photograph the perfect amount of visual flair. The window is covered with iron bars and is closed off with a sheer white curtain. If you look closely, there is a small drawing of a rainbow by a child hanging in the window, the visual impact of which is completely lost, since this is a black and white photo.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Chuck Wendig @chuckwendig.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

Everything is bad, but books are good. Get a book. Read the book. Cherish the book. Finish the book. Tell your friends about the book, and leave a review of the book. Hold the book close. Listen to what it tells you. Do as it commands. Place it on the dread altar and let it guide your every choice.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Brooklyn Heights, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

Black and white photograph of the front façade of a house in Brooklyn Heights. This historic house, built in 1831, is clad in wooden clapboards. The noontime sun shines down on the clapboards, enhancing their contrast. A bush on the bottom right of the frame breaks up on monotony of the horizontal lines.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Brooklyn Heights, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

Black and white photograph of the side of an apartment building in Brooklyn Heights. At the bottom left of the frame is a wrought iron fence, with a bicycle attached to it with a u-lock. Above the frame is an unseen fire escape, whose shadow casts a lattice-like pattern across the frame. Even though this photo was taken midday in the middle of summer, I have the photo graded pretty dark, as the frame is mostly in shadow, with some sections of blown-out direct sunlight.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Trung Le Nguyen @trungles.com · 26/07/2026

I’m signing editions of Pride and Prejudice at comic con now 🤣

A beautiful edition of Pride and Prejudice with a yellow-gold fabric cover decorated with swans 🦢

The signed title page of the of this edition of Pride and Prejudice where I do a little doodle of Elizabeth

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Park Slope, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #Ektachrome100

Photograph of a planter on a window sill of a brownstone in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, the first of a diptych. The sun hits the scene at an acute angle, giving it an extremely dramatic appearance. The bed of the planter is covered in green leaves, while two small bright red flowers shoot upwards. The Internet tells me the plant is some kind of germanium hybrid. Of the two photos in the diptych, I much prefer this one, although the Internet disagrees with me.

The second in a diptych of photos of window sills of brownstones in Park Slope, Brooklyn. This window sill has no flowers on it. Instead, it has an abandoned mostly-empty cup of iced coffee sitting on it. Again, the sun is hitting the scene at a dramatic angle, and the window is quite dirty. The way the sun bounces off the dirt on the window gives the whole photo a dreamy, painterly appearance. People sometimes tell me my photos look like paintings. Eventually I noticed that when they do, it is always a picture of a dirty window in direct sunlight. I guess there is something about photos of dirty windows in sunlight that reminds people of paintings.

Even though I firmly believe that the first photo is objectively better than this one. This photo outperformed the first by a wide margin on social media. Maybe I don’t like this photo as much because I don’t drink coffee.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

Park Slope, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #Ektachrome100

Photograph of the front façade of a commercial/industrial building in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. The building has a big rolling gate for trucks to enter, with the words NO PARKING stenciled onto it. Looking at this site on Street View, the entrance also has a curb cut which is painted bright yellow, and there is a bright orange traffic cone out front with another NO PARKING sign attached to it, and of course, a car parked right there. Next to the truck entrance is a doorway for humans. It was once painted a pleasing color of pumpkin-orange, but the paint has started to flake off, the door is weathered and dented, and has started to rust. To the right of the frame, the building’s cinder blocks are painted in a mosaic of pastel colors, which is the kind of vernacular architecture shit that I LIVE for.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

YouTube video by Joseph LoDuca - Topic

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Boerum Hill, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #Ektachrome100

Photograph of the front façade of a home in the Boerum Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn. This is a former 19th century carriage house that has been converted into a residence. The large swinging doors that were used to park a rich person’s horse and carriage is no longer functional, and the present owner has decorated it with plants. This building is charming as fuck, but it’s also a waste of space, since this lot could fit apartments for many people, instead of the pied-à-terre for one family. Since the block it is on is landmarked, it can never be torn down.

Kodak had recently re-introduced Ektachrome in 2019, and I got my hands on some here in 2020. I liked the results, but the extra expense wasn’t worth it to me. Plus, my piece of shit scanner and software had a surprisingly difficult time with this. Just reproduce exactly what appears on the slide, how difficult can that be? I had to tweak the hell out of these scans to get decent results, and a bunch of frames were wasted because I couldn’t fix them in post, even though everything was correctly exposed.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Tribeca, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Photograph of the front stoop of what was once an industrial building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. Everything is quite Spartan in appearance. The stairs are made from diamond-pattern steel plates. The doors are a bland grey metal. There is a column next to the doors, again painted a dull grey. There is a warning sign attached to the column warning about the building’s freight elevator. In spite of everything being drab and functional, this is some of the most expensive real estate in the world. I haven’t looked it up, but I don’t doubt that apartments worth tens of millions of dollars sit above this inauspicious entrance.

Reposted by Tom Scola

Chad Loder @chadloder.dev · 17/07/2026

A glass door with a hand-lettered sign reading:

NO!!!
SOLICTATION!!!
except Tamale lady

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Tribeca, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

Vertical photograph of a bright red wall in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan. This is really, really, red. I overexposed the UltraMax by two stops to bring out the red even more in the bright sunshine. This is way more red than your monitor can handle. On the sidewalk in front of the wall is a metal barrier, with vertical bars, and above, out of frame, is a fire escape, whose shadow projects horizontal bars across the top half of the frame.

Since 2020, this wall has been painted black, part of the conspiracy to remove color from all our lives.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Current Air Quality
AQI 155
Unhealthy
Brooklyn, NY
1 PM EDT JUL 15, 2026

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Red Hook, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #UltraMax400

A vertical photograph of a fenced-off lot in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn. Sitting on the sidewalk in front of the fence is one of those free newspaper dispensers you see all over the city. This one has been absconded, painted red and black, and has been repurposed as a Little Free Library. However, it looks like the LFL has failed at its new purpose, and now sits empty and abandoned, next to a small pile of trash.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

A vote for a Republican is a vote for EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA.

Tom Scola @heyscola.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Canal St Station, 2020 #BelieveInFilm #400TX

Black and white photograph of the interior of a NYC subway car. This is an R62 subway car, built c. 1984. Forty-two years old, and going strong; due to be replaced in the next 5–10 years. The interior is mostly stainless steel; perfect for the black and white rendering. On the wall is a posting in the NYC Subway Poetry in Motion Series:

Faithful Forest: an excerpt by Alberto Rios b. 1952

The leaves liked the wind, and went with it.
The trees grew more leaves, but wind took them all.

And then the bare trees were *branches*, which in their frenzy
Made people think of so many ideas—

Branches were lines on the paper of sky,
Drawing shapes on the shifting clouds

Until everyone agreed that they saw horses.