The Maine Monument stands at Merchant’s Gate, the main entrance to Central Park. Built at the turn of the last century, the monument commemorates the lives of 266 American sailors killed when the battleship US Maine exploded in Havana harbor in 1898. This monument features an ornately gilded statue on its top, but I chose to photograph just one of the four allegorical figures at its base. The figure hosts no fewer than ten pigeons at this moment, an incongruous gesture of hospitality from such a noble sculpture. The surrounding scuptures add context, as does the hull of stylized ship coming right at us. I processed the image in an antique sepia tone, reminiscent of photographs from the 1890s. (The sculptor, Attilio Piccirilli, is known as well for carving the handsome pediment of the New York Stock Exchange, which I also photographed for this gallery. View it at: http://www.pbase.com/image/110782384)