Land of the Free | Albany, New York

 

Land of the Free
Albany, New York 

© 2026 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, Nor'easter Films, and Restoration Obscura
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www.noreasterfilms.com | www.restorationobscura.com

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E-Comm Square, Infrared | 05.25.2025

E-Comm Square, Infrared | 05.25.2025
Albany, New York

This infrared black-and-white photo was taken today at the remains of E-Comm Square in downtown Albany.

The buildings along this stretch of Broadway date back to the mid-1800s, rebuilt after a devastating fire in 1848. For decades, this row was part of a thriving corridor of commerce and industry, warehouses, storefronts, and later, state offices. In the early 2000s, the property was acquired for a proposed convention center. When plans shifted elsewhere, the site was left behind.

Years of vacancy followed. Roof collapses. Red X placards. Emergency demolitions. Today, the block is mostly silent—its story told through fading signs and photos like this.

Infrared photography reveals what the eye doesn’t catch. Here, the green of spring foliage appears ghostly white, casting the scene in spectral contrast. It’s a reminder of how quickly nature begins to reclaim the built environment once we step away. Weeds rise through concrete. Roots settle in mortar. Decay isn’t dramatic, it’s patient.

The sign still reads “E-Comm Square,” but its function is long gone. All that remains is form, and nature, slowly taking it back.

Originally appeared on www.restorationobscura.com.

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, Restoration Obscura, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.restorationobscura.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Pinhole Image: Former D&H Building

Pinhole Image:

Former D&H Building, now the SUNY System Administration Building
Albany New York

This pinhole image was made using a homemade camera — lanything light-tight can become a camera. The photo captures spring foliage rising around the building’s Gothic tower, a soft impression of a structure with a long and layered history.

History of the Building:

The D&H Building was completed in 1914 for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company and designed by Albany architect Marcus T. Reynolds. Its French Gothic Revival design — with turrets, stone carvings, and cathedral-like windows — gave the railroad a headquarters that looked more like a castle than an office.

It later became home to the Albany Evening Journal, tying it to the city’s media history as well. In the 1970s, the State University of New York acquired the building, converting it into the SUNY System Administration headquarters.

Hidden Details in the Sculptures:

Every detail carved into the stone tells a story. This isn’t just decoration — it’s a record of the people, industries, and institutions that once moved through these halls.

Look closely, and you’ll see figures worked into the stone: newsboys, railroad workers, and office clerks — everyday faces that reflect the building’s original tenants. Gargoyles and grotesques appear around corners and beneath ledges, some in traditional medieval forms, others with a more local character, almost cartoonish in expression.

There are sculpted trains and sections of track woven into the architectural flourishes, subtle nods to the Delaware & Hudson Railroad that commissioned the building in 1914. Faces carved into keystones may represent company executives, construction workers, or even the architect himself, Marcus T. Reynolds.

When the Albany Evening Journal also occupied the building, additional symbols found their way into the design — quills, typebars, and printing press motifs, still visible today if you know where to look.

Together, these carvings form a kind of visual archive. They anchor the building to Albany’s industrial and journalistic past — a physical record of the railroad men, newspaper staff, and city leaders who once passed through its doors.

Episode one of the Restoration Obscura Field Guide podcast is a primer on how to read the city like a history book. You can listen now on Spotify or any major streaming platform. A new episode drops Monday, May 5.

You can listen at: www.restorationobscura.com.

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Albany Ghost Signs | Restoration Obscura | 04.27.2025

Signs of Another Time:
Albany’s Collection of Ghost Signs
For Restoration Obscura

In Albany, New York, you don’t have to dig far to find history — sometimes, you just have to look up.
Look up at the old brickwork downtown, and you’ll start to notice them: faded names, peeling slogans, hand-painted ads for cigars, clothing, and beverages that haven’t existed for decades.

These are ghost signs — relics of the businesses and industries that once powered the city. Painted directly onto the brick with durable, lead-based paints, they were meant to last. And in a way, they have — long after the shops closed and the companies disappeared, the signs remain, clinging to the sides of warehouses, storefronts, and row buildings.

Once you start seeing them, you’ll notice them everywhere, especially in the older cities of New York and New England. And each one pulls you back — not into a single, polished version of history, but into the rough, ordinary pulse of everyday life a century ago.

We explore how to spot these hidden histories — and how cities tell their stories through the things they leave behind — in Episode 1 of the Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast:
“How to Read the City Like a History Book.”

 Open on Spotify

The Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

For information on www.restorationobscura.com

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Maiden Lane Hatch | Restoration Obscura | 04.27.2025

The Maiden Lane Hatch | 04.27.2025
Albany, New York 

At first glance, it just looks like another old hatch set into the cobblestones. Heavy iron framing, a rough rectangle of stones, blending into the worn surface of the Maiden Lane cobble stones.
But Maiden Lane isn’t just any alley.

It’s one of Albany’s oldest streets — the historic link between the Hudson River docks and the heart of the city.

In the 1800s, it buzzed with merchants, dockworkers, and shopkeepers, moving goods up from the waterfront into the city’s booming marketplaces.

Originally, this hatch led to the underbelly of that life. Coal for heating. Dry goods for storefronts. Supplies hauled straight off the riverboats.

But by the time Prohibition hit in the 1920s, the purpose of these hatches started to shift.
Basements once used for storage became hiding spots.

Vaults meant for goods started holding contraband.

And the sidewalk hatches — almost invisible to the casual eye — became perfect drop points for something a little more valuable than coal.

Barrels of bootleg whiskey. Crates of Canadian rum. Cases of illegal beer.

Albany’s location made it a natural stop on smuggling routes between New York City, Canada, and points west — and the network of basements, tunnels, and vaults around Maiden Lane helped keep the flow moving.

Today, the hatch on Maiden Lane looks like just another piece of old infrastructure.
But it’s part of a hidden story — one where cities adapted and survived by turning their very bones into lifelines for an underground economy. Most of the remaining hatches have been purposed for utilities access.

If you know how to read the city, you start seeing these clues everywhere.

We explore how to spot these hidden histories — and how cities tell their stories through the things they leave behind — in Episode 1 of the Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast:
“How to Read the City Like a History Book.”

 Open on Spotify

The Restoration Obscura Field Guide Podcast is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and YouTube Music.

For information on www.restorationobscura.com

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

New York State Police EOD | 04.19.2025

 

04.19.2025 | New York State Police EOD investigating a suspicious package following April 19th's Hands Off Protest in Albany, New York 

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Antiquity Project: Ruins of the Central Warehouse

Antiquity Project: Ruins of the Central Warehouse
Albany, New York

Large Format Image 

Long Exposure
Built in 1927, Albany’s Central Warehouse was a 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility located near Montgomery Street. Designed to preserve perishable goods like meat, fish, and dairy, it played a vital role in regional commerce due to its proximity to railroads and the Hudson River. Its thick, reinforced concrete structure and windowless design ensured optimal temperature control for the era.

As Albany’s industrial era faded, the warehouse fell into disuse, becoming largely abandoned by the 1980s. Efforts to repurpose it were hindered by ownership disputes, unpaid taxes, and bureaucratic challenges. Over time, the decaying structure became a controversial landmark, viewed by some as a relic of the past and by others as an eyesore.

In February 2025, the Advance Albany County Alliance assumed control of the property and is currently evaluating bids for its demolition, sparking debate over whether to erase or preserve this piece of Albany’s industrial history.

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Albany in the Snow | 02.06.2025

Albany in the Snow | 02.06.2025
Albany, New York 

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

The Erin Elizabeth | 01.30.2025

The Erin Elizabeth | 01.30.2025

The towboat Erin Elizabeth passed through the open Livingston Avenue Bridge this morning, breaking ice as it eased north along the Hudson River in Albany, New York .

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved

Nipper Sunrise | 01.04.205

Nipper Sunrise | 01.04.2025
Albany, New York 

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved  

Sunset Over the Palace Theater | 01.03.2025

Sunset Over the Palace Theater | 01.03.2025
Albany, New York 

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved  

The Kenmore (North Pearl Rain) | 12.13.2024

The Kenmore (North Pearl Rain) | 12.13.2024
Albany, New York 

© 2025 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved  

Antiquity Project Series 1: Albany

 

Antiquity Project Series 1: Albany

Large Format Images

These images were captured using a view camera, a large-format device with bellows and adjustable front and rear standards, renowned for its ability to produce detailed and precise images. Dating back to the 19th century, this traditional camera design adds a fascinating contrast to the modern cityscape—it’s quite the experience carrying it through contemporary streets, and it certainly turns heads.

Series 1 presents Albany as it might have been photographed a century ago. Using the same composition techniques and an eye for documentary-style imagery, I’ve aimed to recreate the visual language of that era. Photographers of the time sought to “show the scene” as fully as possible, often focusing on detail and completeness. To stay true to that approach, I’ve worked to omit all traces of modern life, producing images that likely look much as they would have 100 years ago—captured with the same kind of photographic gear.

Working with primitive analog photography has profoundly influenced my approach to modern photography. The deliberate process of setting up a view camera, carefully composing each frame, and waiting for the perfect moment demands patience, precision, and a deeper understanding of light and form. This slower, more intentional style sharpens the eye for detail and storytelling. It’s a reminder that the roots of photography—seeing, composing, and connecting—transcend time and technology.

© 2024 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved    

Photographer's Notebook | Week of November 17, 2024

Photography Notebook | Week of November 17, 2024.

Images captured over the past week in various locations. Photography is the art of observation. It’s about discovering the interesting in the ordinary and realizing it’s not about what you see but how you see it.

© 2024 John Bulmer Photography, John Bulmer Media, and Nor'easter Films
www.bulmerphotography.com
www.johnbulmermedia.com
www.noreasterfilms.com
All Rights Reserved