One week after a record-breaking mob of 120,617 descended on the New York State Fair, the Hound continues to look back, today contemplating the Fair’s role as a life transition for many of us. Not only is it the bridge between summer and early fall, leaving behind school or job vacations for business-as-usual, it marks the passage of a special season, one that is like no other. Until, that is, next year’s State Fair.

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State Fair Hound worked hard to greatly increase our photo file this year and, thanks largely to the extraordinary talents of award-winning photographer Nick LoPresti, we can now review them and relive some of those people, places and events we enjoyed this year, including many yearly traditions. (Nick shot the first two photos here as well as the last.)

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We offer this collection of photos as proof that there are sights, feelings, thrills and pleasures at our Fair that aren’t seen anywhere else, at least not at the same place, not within 12 days.

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The State Fair website reminds us that these photos and the memories they evoke will have to hold us for 355 days, until the gates open for the 2015 edition.

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