Being a traveler who hails from New York, I've always felt a rush of excitement when coming back home to my vibrant, bustling and everyone always hustling city. I love to travel, but I do live in The Big Apple, a city that caters to millions of tourists a year. In this post, I've decided to write a little about my city, featuring a recent "trip" I took to the islands of New York (Roosevelt Island, that is).  

When I was younger, one of my good friends lived on Roosevelt Island. To me, I thought it was like a little suburban town; everyone was friends with each other and had grown up together. I wanted to live there, and visited as often as I could.

That was years ago, and frankly, I hadn’t been back in about 5 or 6 years. So when I visited Four Freedoms Park, designed by Louis I. Kahn, I was astonished at how much the island had changed; the new Cornell center, along with Four Freedoms, had completely overtaken the Southern tip of the island, which, in the past, had only been a series of abandoned medical buildings.

A little history:
​Dedicated to Franklin D. Roosevelt, Four Freedoms Park Conservancy is dedicated to the late president, with the name taken from his iconic Four Freedoms speech. It’s mission is to educate visitors in the four freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.  The park has a calendar, especially during the summer months, that is packed with educational talks, seminars, tours and more that highlight their mission. In addition, the park has a huge lawn, monumental steps and plenty of space for a lazy weekend picnic. 

We visited Four Freedoms on a hot summer day. To get to Roosevelt Island, one can either take the F train, which stops directly on the island, or take the tram (which I highly recommend!) To get to the tram, take the 4,5, 6 or NQRW to 59th St. and walk to 57th and 2nd, The tram affords gorgeous views of the city, and its about a five minute trip each way, and costs the same as taking the train. 

​Once on the island, the park is located on the Souther most tip-it’s literally on the edge. The walk is about 20 minutes, but its field with beautiful views of Manhattan’s East Side on your right and Queens on your left.

The image above is the view you see when reaching the top of the monumental stairs. In New York, views such as these aren't necessarily seen on the daily,  and  descending onto the top part of the conservancy was pretty breathtaking. There were not too many visitors, and I appreciated the ability to take it all in. 

At the park, I used  the opportunity for an impromptou photoshoot (photos below). The pictures are all taken by my partner, an architect and photographer on the side (and the one who literally takes all my photos). If it wasn't for him, I honestly would not have known this park existed: even though I'm from New York, and raised here, there's so much happening, opening and going on in the city it's hard to keep track of everything, and I'm always looking for suggestions and recommendations for new spots to visit. Being a model as well, I love exploring and shooting in as many new places as I can, and the park is definitely a great spot for photographers to work from -instead of the classic New York shots at DUMBO, Times Square, West Village (the list goes on). 

As you can see, visiting this beautiful island ( the photos above are all shot around the park ) is a MUST for photographers, models, creatives, anything. It's still relatively new, which makes it all the more worthy of getting out there. I enjoyed my time here, and definitely will be back in the fall!