citylikeyou — Upstate — New York by Jason Koxvold

New York / Place

When I first moved to New York, enamoured by its parks and museums and design firms and restaurants and bars, I never imagined that there could be much more to its geography than that. How wrong I was. My first drive across the George Washington Bridge was jaw-dropping - the cliffs of New Jersey are astonishingly tall, covered in a dense thicket of trees. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Drive up 87 to the Catskills or the Adirondacks and you’ll witness the Hudson River winding its way through spectacular scenery and unforgiving seasons. Now I can’t get enough; just two hours up the road, it’s like the city never existed. Perfect recuperation after a long week.

Address
Upstate, North of New York, New York, United States

Photographer Artist

Current city: New York

koxvold.com

Jason Koxvold is a creative director at StrawberryFrog, artist, and co-founder of Renegade Pencils, an organisation that helps give children access to a creative education. His work has been exhibited at MoMA, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, RESFEST, SXSW and the Los Angeles Film Festival. He has held creative workshops in Singapore; glued reflective balls to interns in San Francisco; spent hundreds of hours photographing landfills in Tokyo; driven an ambulance across Europe and Central Asia to raise money to build schools; raced motorcycles in the Scottish grand prix series; been interviewed by the Russian FSB in a holding cell in the Arctic Circle, and by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Kentucky.

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New York / Museum

A not-for-profit community museum and civic organization located in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The museum traces the history of New York City's five boroughs with its exhibitions of cultural ephemera and relics.

New York / Restaurant

My favorite Japanese restaurant in NY...Small and cozy place, the staff is great, the food always simple and delicious, the uni shots are addictive and the sake perfect.

New York / Restaurant

I probably frequent here twice a week, because I am obsessed with Mexican food, and I'm fortunate enough to live in close proximity to this place. Taqueria Tepango is definitely a sapphire in the rough since there are a lot of terrible/over-priced Mexican restaurants in NYC.

New York / Gallery

This artist-run gallery is a hub of the Brooklyn gallery scene. You'll find Bungee, a celebrated fixture, snoozing comfortably in the office and somehow oblivious to all the surrounding chaos.

New York / Place

It starts when a friend implores you to eat downstairs at La Esquina, the subterranean brasserie branch of Derek Sanders's Mexican axis of Kenmare Street. The food’s cheaper and probably better at the walk-in-only cafe around the corner from the restaurant’s entrance—a door disguised by a taqueria counter and a sign that reads “Employees Only”—but there’s a certain category of New Yorker who thrives on having what others don’t. A reservationist will ask you if you’ve “dined with us before,” and in general, it takes knowing someone in the industry, smooth talking, or (velvet-rope flashback) looking good and confident at the door, to waltz in at prime time. The reward is dining in a Mexican dungeon as styled for a Vogue shoot, complete with metalwork, distressed stone walls, and water dripping on the back of your neck (though the owners can probably thank the air conditioner for the added atmospherics). Making up the grinning crowd at secluded booths and in private cells (?): a healthy mix of models, cougars, and maybe John Mayer picking his way through red snapper ceviche, cauliflower and avocado taquitos, grilled octopus tostados, or a plate of tuna tartare with a tamarind glaze. If the food sounds light, you’re right; it’s playing to the delicious crowd. This is, what "The New Yorker" wrote about this fantastic place!