Location Manager/Scouts John Hutchinson, LMGI and Les Fincher, LMGI have been friends and colleagues for many years. Between them, they have covered every inch of “the City that never sleeps!” John Hutchinson was the LMGI’s first New York member and Les Fincher joined the Guild this past year, currently holding a seat on the LMGI Board of Directors. For their in-depth conversation about working and living in New York City, please see the Winter 2019 Compass magazine or view the conversation and more photos in the gallery post.
“New York is a blend of glitter and grit, polished gleam and funky texture. One minute it’s shiny, elegant and unattainably posh, and the next it’s as sweaty, chaotic and rough as the Lower East Side in the middle of August.” –John Hutchinson
“New York has cinematic energy everywhere you look”- Les Fincher
“They call it the City that never sleeps. It’s also the city that’s never dark, or deserted. Light is everywhere, and the city takes on a completely different, magic aspect at night. I love night scouting in New York City” –John Hutchinson.
NY Skyline—John Hutchinson
“NYC has arresting visuals everywhere you look. Movement and static graphics. Shafts of light redefining the frame. Folks on the street seem to be standing as a fashion shoot while just waiting to cross the street.” –Les Fincher
5th Ave, Manhattan—Les Fincher
“Brooklyn was an independent city until 1898. If it was still its own city, it would be the 4th largest in the US, by population. 46% of Brooklyn’s people speak a mother language other than English. One out of four Brooklyn residents is Jewish.” –John Hutchinson
Brooklyn—John Hutchinson
DUMBO, Brooklyn (short for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)—John Hutchinson
“The skyline’s massive buildings create visual canyons of light and shadow.” –Les Fincher
Empire State Building—Les Fincher
“Manhattanhenge” View from East River at New Town Creek—Les Fincher
Wall Street—John Hutchinson
“The night lights sparkle against the dark sky, a palette for superheroes.”—Les Fincher
Brooklyn Bridge Park—John Hutchinson
Gantry Plaza State Park—John Hutchinson
Times Square—Les Fincher
Grand Central Terminal—Les Fincher
Katz’s Deli—John Hutchinson
Katz’s Deli—Les Fincher
“The graffiti artists of Bushwick, whose canvas is industrial Brooklyn.”— John Hutchinson
Boxing Gym—John Hutchinson
Coney Island—Les Fincher
Financial District—Les Fincher
The Brooklyn Army Terminal—John Hutchinson
Red Hook Grain Terminal, Brooklyn—John Hutchinson
Russ & Daughters, Manhattan—John Hutchinson
In Manhattan I’ve always lived Downtown—East Village, Chelsea, Lower East Side—where buildings are lower and life is less fancy than Uptown. But I love scouting both. The “real” New York, even in a time of rampant homogenization, still exists in the jumble of these extremes – Park Avenue and Avenue A, doorman coops and roach tenements, Upper West Side’s Zabars and East Houston’s Russ & Daughters. –John Hutchinson
Brooklyn Heights—Les Fincher
Brooklyn Heights—Les Fincher
City View—John Hutchinson
Rooftop View—John Hutchinson
Bow Bridge, Central Park—Les Fincher
Central Park View—John Hutchinson
Radio City Music Hall, Rockefeller Center—Les Fincher
Warehouse—John Hutchinson