The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The High An Artistic Exploration of Everyday Experiences on The High Line – NYC By Albert Dépas

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

The High An Artistic Exploration of Everyday Experiences on The High Line - NYC By Albert Dépas Depas-studio.com Thehigh.online Overview The High Line, once an abandoned railway track, has been radically transformed into a lush, vibrant oasis, with the industrial structures repurposed into unique seating areas. This 1.5-mile elevated linear park in New York City is a testament to the potential of urban spaces. This book, "The High," is the result of countless weekly visits over several years. The aim is to showcase the essence of the High Line, capturing the park's beauty through the lens of art. While the photographs depict certain features and observations, the poems aim to invoke the energy through which these experiences emerge and are appreciated. The book is thoughtfully designed to be a seamless, continuous adventure. The content is a rich tapestry of diverse photographs and poems, each capturing a unique aspect of the High Line, from the vibrant greenery to the distinctive seating areas, lively activities, and tranquil moments. "The High" offers a comprehensive view of the High Line, inviting you to explore its many facets. If you haven't experienced the High Line yet, this book will spark your curiosity and inspire you to embark on a journey to discover its unique essence.

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they help authors reach their audience and maximize their book success. Today we have an amazing young man. Today we're going to be talking about his book, his newest book out and some of the work that he does. Albert Dippa is on the show with us today. We're going to get into his book, The High, an artistic exploration of everyday experiences on the High line. New York City.

And it's not a book about pot. It's a book about the high, the line in New York City. Welcome to the show Albert. How are you? Thank you, Chris. I am well. How are you? I am doing excellent.

I am doing excellent. Give us your dot coms. Where do you want people to find you on the interwebs? To find me on the internet for the book is vi.online. The title of the book dot online. And you're a Haitian American visual artist, poet, and educator with experience in diverse disciplines of visual media. You've been trained in traditional methods of fine arts, drawing, painting, sculpturing, photography, as well as graphic design, architecture, and digital media for graphic and web design. You have a bachelor in visual studies and

a master in special education and a master in international education. Your artworks have been exhibited in the United States, Haitia, Canada, and Europe, and you've been publishing several publications. Tell us about your new book. What is inside the new book, The High? My new book, The High, what you will find inside is a collection of photographs

about the High Line in New York City, and a collection of photographs about the High Line in New York City and a collection of poetry about the experiences that I go through and different people are going through while on the High Line. So now the Highline itself is a park that is made from an elevated rail line that was abandoned and has been transformed into this park which they call the Highline because it is an elevated area, elevated rail line. Now, it is a park, thus the name, the high line, and my book is titled after that, the high, which is the experience that you have while you are on the high line, a joyful, blissful moment. The joyful, blissful moments. Now, why was it important to write this book about the Highline? What drew you to it? What was the inspiration? I used to be a graphic designer for the Department of City Planning.

Mm hmm. And they oversee zoning regulation in the city and for the highland to have become what it is now my office was involved in it. Okay. So I had the opportunity to visit the area before it becomes the park. Uh huh. Then I photographed it and it I've been done state. when I went back in 2009 after it becomes a park, I was amazed by the

transformation. Wow. I photographed it again and I continue to do that and eventually I get carried away by the experiences taking place on the High Line and that leads to the book. Now is it poetry, is it just prose, is it photography, what's inside the book that we're going to find? It is poetry and photographs. The photographs are about different section of the High Line and different events that take place on the High Line while people are into the activities.

The poetry are about the experiences that people are having on the High Line. And poetry works in conjunction with the photograph. While you're reading the poem, you can see the idea in the poem reflected in the photographs in the book. Oh, wow. You know, I used to... New York City is such a collection of people and such a melting pot, if you will, I guess that's an old term, of just a diverse group of people. And, you know, the people from all sorts of normal walks of life to people that sometimes have a lot of artistic sort of nature or oddities as that were. And in California, I used to always go down to Venice Beach with my cameras and I would do day shoots down there.

And the Venice Beach boardwalk kind of has maybe the same sort of eclectic people, maybe more than you see in New York, maybe on the Highline. But I used to shoot people and boy, it was interesting to watch the people on that line and some of the photographs they got were amazing. Some of the people are, you know, there's, there's kind of some oddities out there and uh, some of the adventures and of course the natural trappings of the boardwalk as it were. So I imagine you have a lot of those same sort of style pictures and things that you get there.

Similarly, yes. Uh, there are a lot of different people from different parts of the world on the Highline. pictures and things that you get there. their own activities, their own experience. At the same time, there is a union among the people, and I think it's because of the area, the way it is structured, that everyone comes into contact with each other. Mm hmm. Now, this is your second book. What was your first book about? Uh, this is your second book. What was your first book about? My first book is, uh, the title is metamorphosis of joy. And it is about my experiences with friends, families, and girlfriends. And in fact, the title is named after a, an ex-girlfriend.

Her name is joy. So for a while. And then, you know, as things would happen, things happen and we went all different ways. And after that, I sat down and put my experiences together and wrote the book. Well, definitely being in relationships in 2025 will give you lots of material for books, I think, or comedy or crying or therapy.

One of the two, one of the five, whatever, how many of us, well, it's interesting. You know, I, we've had people come that have on the show that have done photographs in New York city, featured them in a book. One of our friends that had come on the show, he had toured New York City during COVID, when everything was in lockdown. And somehow he got access to wander around. And so he has these shots of New York City during COVID and the train lines during COVID and then like there's nobody around. It's like a ghost town. And so it's pretty crazy. And then I think he hosts walking tours of the history of certain barrios of New York. So maybe that's something you could look into doing in the future. Maybe do tours of the Highline or feature, you know, feature Highline tours, maybe. I don't know. There are so many tours now already scheduled

for the Highline. I wouldn't want to compete with them. Yeah. They're doing their history. If I were to do a tour, it would be specifically about my book. Yeah. However, I have a book that I'm working on COVID as well.

Photographs that I took during COVID. Pete Slauson Oh, wow. Dr. Amandlo Mbappé And hopefully, that will be out one day soon. Pete Slauson Yeah. I mean, that would be very interesting to see, wouldn't it? You know, especially if you've got like empty streets and stuff, like it was in Canary during COVID to see, you know, Times Square, like just completely empty and people. And you're just like, wow, that is some crazy stuff right there. And, uh, yeah, the, what are some other things maybe we should know about the book that people might

find enticing or what do you hope that they come away with reading the book? What I, uh, they come away with reading the you want to watch TV. The book an experience of being on the high line. Is that a virtual journey on the high line by going through the book and the book is designed to give you that educational aspect in it and

they are capsule for reflective moment in it. So, in my is that it is designed that this school system can use it for elementary school in high school. Every day people can use it and the academic circle can use it as well. Yeah. Now tell us about some of the other offerings you have on your website. You do a lot of things in the artistic world, paintings, graphic design, collages and poetry and talking art. I'm curious, what is talking art?

Talking art, it's a poem. It is in my first book. If I can pull the book out, I might be able to read it for you. Sure. It's It's interesting that you mention it because that was not on my mind at all. But let me see, where is it? 51. Okay, it's a shorter poem title, as you mentioned, Talking Heart. Between the forces of creativity, the melody of my sound reigns supreme.

It runs through your spine and juggles your every bone. The voices in my poem echo through your ears and settle upon your heart. There become your emotions. The colors of my palette, they penetrate through your pupils. There they remain forever. So what I'm trying to put forward in this poem is that each of the different art form like in music, in poetry, and painting has them mode of affecting the viewer, the observer, the

into a hierarchy of the art form. And then comes poetry, which of course has the music in it. Mm-hmm. And then you come to the visual aspect of it. And that's where you engage more into it. Because you have to question yourself, question the art, whereas music to a great extent, we enjoy passively sometimes. We listen to it, it carries that carries us away. And that's where it reigns supreme. It takes you to another dimension, whereas the others you have to be actively involved, not so much passive. Pete Slauson Wow. And that's really what you're looking for when it comes down to it. Tell us about some of the other work you do. We mentioned the painting.

Do you now do you do contract work with some of this stuff where if a company or individual wants to hire you to curate a piece? If somebody wants to hire me, yes, but I, the work that I have done for hire have been mostly photographs and graphic design. Depending, it's my ideas that I put out and my focus is on the notion of individual identity as well as the collective sense that we have as a community, as a culture, as a nation that comes together to present an identity of themselves through this very debated question of what is consciousness and what is self? What is consciousness and what is self?

Are those topics you like to explore usually? Oh yes. Oh yes. What is consciousness and what is self is that are those topics you like to explore usually? Oh yes. Oh yes. Yes. These are the topics that I like to explore because, um, this notion of note, I self is something that I have been involved in, you know, since I was a teenager. Yeah.

It's on their own personal experience opportunity to self reflect on You know, and no one has really come to term, you know, what it is, where it comes from. But yet, it is true consciousness that we have everyday experiences. Yeah, yeah. The, you know, it's, and that's something we need to think about in ponders, we go through life, the motivation behind it and all that stuff. And you know, understanding our world. The thing I love about art and poetry and photography, I recently got back into cameras

and photography, is it kind of forces us to look at ourselves and look at our world and kind of see it through a different lens as it were, maybe a lens outside of ourselves. And see things and appreciate things that maybe they do. I recently, like I said, I got back into photography. I switched from Sony cameras, or I'm sorry, Canon cameras to Sony cameras, and have been buying up all the lenses and all that stuff for relaunching my photography business. And I just find really immense full, peaceful pleasure in taking photographs, looking at them, pondering the artistry, seeing the beauty of the world. Sometimes when we look at things, we take things for granted, but sometimes when you take a photo,

at things, we take things for granted. But sometimes when you take a photo, you know, you're focused on that photo and your mind, you know, kind of goes, what's going on here? And then you really start to look at life. Wow. You know, like I was taking some photos of my dog running around chasing a ball yesterday and I got some really good shots of her underneath the leaves of the tree. And she's looking up at me with the ball in her mouth. And I took the photo and I was like, wow, these are really beautiful. Wow. There's a whole vibrant life out there of greenness and the world, and it just makes such a great contrast too. But I don't know if you have any thoughts on that. It just seems like art really brings out life and helps us really appreciate it more. That is definitely, I teach art as well.

Oh really? Yes. One of my definition that I present to this student is, art is a unique human experience. that I present to this to them is beings. We human so far are the only one we know that makes art. Now, why do we make it? It is a metaphor. It is through art that we explain,

we present certain experiences that we cannot logically the experiences that we cannot But because of art, we can present an aspect of that experience and from their own personal experience, the passion, that's the beauty of art. Whether it is a student, whether it is another artist, whether it is an art historian, and they will get it. And even when the person comes from a different culture, doesn't even speak your language, they can get something out of it. language. They can get something out of it. That's the power in art. And sometimes they're their own interpretation, right?

Definitely. Definitely. Yes, definitely. I mean, the best art will traverse two cultures. you know, you are a verse to So, when an art is going through I mean, we all think so when you see that sculpture, It gives you an opportunity to reflect on your own self. Yeah. What's going on and there are countless other artworks that do that.

I don't know if you're familiar with uh Christina's world. No. It's a painting uh by the name of the artist. Give me, let me see if I can. It's a painting of a young lady who has some type of disability and she's

crawling across a field of uh grass trying It's a well-known painting. You know, so once you come across that painting, it gives you a moment to you go into the migration series by Jacob Lawrence. And this series is about the African-American experience migration from the South to the North,

looking for a better life. Yeah. This is what you get out of art It can be entertaining it can be Educational and it can be enlightened and by enlightened. I don't necessarily mean on a spiritual level I mean on the personal level of self-realization For your own life Yeah, there you go. Well wise words to follow most definitely realization for your own life. Yeah. There you go.

Well, wise words to follow most definitely. Uh, so as we go out, give people a final pitch out on how they can reach out to you, how they can get to know you better and all that good stuff. To, to get the book, you go to the high dot online about my visual works. You go to the pad dash studio.com. And if you don't remember any of these things, just Google my name, I'll bear the path and a whole lot of site will come and you'll take your choice of where to go but definitely the

high dot online is for my book the high which offers you the opportunity of a virtual to a virtual experience on the high line in New York City. Takes you to a blissful moment. A joyful experience. That's the high. It's a good high to take and have, right? Oh yes. Uh it's

been wonderful to have you on. Uh give people your final dot coms as we go out and we'll wrap the show. The high dot online. It's for my book., thank you very much for coming on, Abare. We certainly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you too, Chris. Thank you and thanks to my honest for tuning in. Go to goodreads.com for just Chris Vos. Pick up his book wherever fine books are sold. The High, an artistic exploration of

everyday experiences on the high line in New York City. Thanks so much for tuning in. Go to Facebook.com, FortesysCrisposs, LinkedIn.com, FortesysCrisposs, and get your friends and neighbors to listen to the show. We certainly appreciate it. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.