A personal series of feature projects covering different themes and places.
NEW YORK has always been the largest city in the United States, with the current metropolitan population around 22 million. It ranks as one of the top three cultural and commercial cities in the world.
Back in the day, it was the jewel in the crown of Britain's American colonies for over 120 years. However, its humble beginnings stretch back to an accidental near-discovery by Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524, who anchored in the narrows and then inexplicably turned back.
It took 269 years before the British finally gave up their occupation of New York, and left to fight another war, this time against Napoleon and the French. General George Washington was thus inaugurated on the steps of the Federal Building (near Wall St today) as the first president of the United States in 1789.
A city incredibly fascinating for me, it was a gift when I ended up living there. A photographers dream.
FORGOTTEN PIER
The remains of a former pier are still visible right across the harbour from downtown Manhattan, with 'Lady Liberty' visible in the distance.
THE BRIDGE
In south Brooklyn, at the end of the R-Train subway line is one of the greatest single-span bridges in the western hemisphere, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, completed in 1964. It dominates the skyline in the Bay Ridge neighbourhood. It also has an interesting history, since the Brooklyn tower (seen in the shot) is almost exactly the point at which the British Navy dropped anchor 360 years prior (in 1664) before taking the colony from the Dutch settlers.
EL DORADO
The Art Deco-style El Dorado apartment building on the Upper West Side, Manhattan (centre shot, twin towers) from across the reservoir in Central Park. One of my favourite buildings on the Upper West Side.
WEST 36 STREET
One of my favourite shots, taken down on the boardwalk at Coney Island, Brooklyn. Although the streets often don't quite reach the boardwalk, the street signs certainly do.
GRAND CENTRAL
The fabulous Grand Central Terminal architecture, taken from 42 Street. A building saved from predatory redevelopment by Jackie Onassis.
NYSE
Another façade, another spectacular building. The columns fronting the New York Stock Exchange on Broad Street, downtown Manhattan.
SUPERFUND
The view of downtown Brooklyn's skyline from the 9th Street bridge over the Gowanus, as it becomes more and more like Manhattan. In the foreground the superfund site that is one of the most toxic and polluted waterways in the country.
THE LONG VIEW
Belden Point, City Island, Bronx seems far-flung from New York City – except when viewed as here from across the Long Island Sound.
BETHESDA
Central Park's Bethesda Fountain.
GREEN-WOOD
The impressive neo-gothic entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery in the heart of Brooklyn, designated a National Historic monument and one of the oldest cemeteries in the country, containing civil war dead and many other famous Americans.