Artist: Dan Piech December 5, 2015 Midtown Manhattan, New York, NY 704 megapixels 10.7 x 4.9 feet 100 lifetime prints
My favorite phenomenon in New York has always been the two days of the year in May and July, popularly dubbed "Manhattanhenge," when the days' final sun rays are suddenly aligned with the grid of parallel streets that populate midtown Manhattan. This floods canyons that are usually shrouded in dark shadows cast by imposing towers with the warmth of the setting sun. The moment only lasts for a few fleeting seconds and represents a confluence of humanity and nature in a manner that doesn't require them to compete for attention.
The popularity and awareness of this phenomenon has grown exponentially over the past few years, but there's another little-known version of it that occurs on two days in December and January when the days' first rays from the rising sun cause the same effect in the opposite direction. This is the version I much prefer.
As anyone who pays attention to the Hudson river knows, pre-dawn weekend mornings are the only time when the water has a brief moment of calm revealing stunning reflections. In 2015, the sunrise Manhattanhenge date fell on a weekend, thus presenting the perfect opportunity for an image of it from the New Jersey side of the river. So I set up all of my gear in the frigid darkness at 5am and waited. I was the only person as far as the eye could see who was photographing this moment; everyone else was fast asleep, unaware of what was about to happen.