While this winter has taken us on a weather roller-coaster that likes to plummet from unseasonally warm temperatures to a polar vortex, the recent snow that blanketed Queens left much of the borough looking like a “secret wonderland” that photographer Joe Abate said he couldn’t wait to explore.
Abate, a Long Island resident who works on Austin Street, recently shot these photographs in Forest Hills’ MacDonald Park.
“The park is my connection to the natural world,” Abate wrote. “The photographs were my expression of my deep joy of seeing the new snow in a place I deeply love. The snow fell slowly that morning, and it made the park appear more monochromatic as the snow deepened upon the lawns, on the trees, and on the benches.
“I wish it would be like that at least once a year, and I wish everyone in the area could see it like I did that special day,” he continued. “I hope my pictures give the viewer a chance to see the beauty and tranquility I saw that day.”
As the morning wore on, Abate said residents began to join him in the park around 10 a.m. and he “enjoyed watching them becoming so carefree as they roamed throughout the park.”
MacDonald Park, which is bounded by Queens Boulevard, Yellowstone Boulevard, and 70th Road, has long captured Abate’s heart, and he noted that he will frequently go to the green space on his lunch breaks to relax, meditate and watch the chess players intently focused on their games.
He also noted the changes at the park, including additional trees and shrubs that have been planted there, giving the space what he called “an interesting circular design.”
“The benches and the snow offered me interesting curves throughout the park while under morning snow conditions,” Abate wrote.
