Here we see streets, sidewalks, automobiles, and pedestrians in an aerial view of a busy Manhattan intersection, with a parade of bright yellow taxi cabs cutting diagonally across. Then, suddenly, we see that distinctive triangular shadow—and we know where we are—Fifth Avenue seen from the top of New York’s beloved Flatiron Building!
The photographer John Stern, geologist and New York State regional planner, was visiting the building and invited up to see this view, and I’m grateful his photograph makes it possible for us to see it too.
Sometimes a different vantage point shows us the wonder in something we had not seen. There’s a beautiful composition here of straight line and curve in streets and plazas filled with cars and people, a composition not visible from street level. And that mysterious shadow seems to softly embrace and compose this hubbub of daily life.
—Joe Spetly
THE HONORING EYE: 18 Photographers Look at the World