A 3:1 panoramic photograph of the Lower Manhattan skyline at night across New York Harbor, New York, United States, available as a limited edition print in three sizes.
Artist's Story
A photographer friend who lives in New York took me out to a spot on the New Jersey shore I would never have found on my own, and we stood by the water and waited for the city to come up. He had spent years working out where these places are and what hour they happen, and that evening he handed it over.
The Statue of Liberty is in this photograph, near the middle, about the size of a lit window.
She is also the closest thing in the frame. Liberty Island sits out in the harbor well in front of Lower Manhattan, so from where we were standing she was nearer to the camera than any building behind her. A nearer object ought to look bigger. Hers does not, and the only way that happens is if the difference in actual size is enormous.
It is. From the ground to the top of her torch she stands three hundred and five feet, and a hundred and fifty-one of that is the statue, the rest pedestal. One World Trade Center, behind her and further away, reaches one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six. Stand her against the Empire State Building at the left of this frame and she comes up to its twenty-fifth floor.
Harbor is a city photographed from the far shore, with the thing everybody crosses the water to see reduced to a point of light near the middle of it.
This crop is 14 percent of the frame width, about 13 inches across on the 90 inch print. The statue resolves into a figure, the torch clear of the raised arm with its flame reading as a separate point, and the pedestal distinct beneath her. She and her pedestal together stand about a fifth the height of the tower behind, and she is the nearer of the two. Above the roofline the spire carries a stack of aviation lights, each throwing its own starburst. Click to view at full size.
About This Photograph
New York Harbor, photographed in 2018 from the New Jersey shore looking east toward Lower Manhattan after sunset. Single frame at five seconds, long enough to hold the detail in the city lights and to smooth the water. One World Trade Center stands at the centre of the frame with the Statue of Liberty below it.
The skyline here is flattened. A long lens looking across several miles of water compresses distance, stacking objects that are far apart along the line of sight into what appears to be a single plane. The tower at the left of this frame is the Empire State Building, in Midtown, roughly three miles up the island from One World Trade Center at the centre. On the ground they belong to different neighbourhoods with a great deal of city between them. From the far shore they appear to stand side by side.
Harbor
Steve Austinhttps://www.steveaustinphotography.com/
Location
New York Harbor, New York, United States
Subject
Manhattan skyline · Statue of Liberty · New York Harbor
Capture
Single frame, five second long exposure
Format
Photograph · horizontal panorama, 3:1
Sizes
36 × 12 in · 60 × 20 in · 90 × 30 in
Print Media
TruLife Acrylic · ChromaLuxe Metal · Baryta paper
Edition
Limited, 25 / 50 / 100 by presentation
What it Does in a Room
At the largest size this photograph is wider than the eye can take in. A ninety inch print viewed from eight feet spans about fifty degrees, which is past the limit of what anyone sees sharply without moving. The consequence is that a viewer standing in front of it cannot hold the whole picture at once: they see the centre, then turn their head, then turn back. Every other piece here is taken in with one look. This one has to be read across, and it behaves less like a picture than like a window with a view running past both edges of the opening. Hang it where somebody can stand close enough for that to happen. At twenty feet it becomes a strip of lights.
It also has no depth at all. Everything in the frame sits at effectively the same distance, miles off, so there is no foreground, no middle ground, and none of the overlapping cues the eye normally uses to build space out of a flat surface. That makes it sit on the wall rather than open a hole in it, closer to a frieze than to a view, and it is the only photograph in this collection that does. Practically, it means the piece will not fight a shallow room. A picture with strong recession hung in a narrow space sets up a depth the room cannot deliver. This one claims none, so it works in a corridor or against a wall you pass close to.
And everyone knows what it is. That is a real difference from the rest of this work, and it cuts both ways. A viewer in front of a canyon or a stairwell looks at the photograph. A viewer in front of this one starts naming buildings, and naming is a different activity from looking: it finishes quickly and it is satisfied by recognition rather than by attention. The picture has an answer to that, which is the scale argument on this page, but it only arrives for someone who stays past the first glance. Hang it where people linger rather than where they pass, and it will get the second look it needs.
Not sure which size the room calls for, or want dimensions not listed here? Sizes beyond 90 × 30 are available on request and ship crated by freight. That conversation is welcome before an order is placed. Start that conversation and I will answer within one business day.
How small is too small for a photograph this wide?
At the Intimate size the picture is thirty-six inches across and twelve tall, and the skyline holds as a shape. One World Trade Center holds, the glow holds, the water holds. What goes is the Statue of Liberty, which at this size is a few pixels of pale green and stops being a statue at all. That is the whole argument of the photograph, so the smallest size gives you a skyline and takes away the reason for it. The Collected at sixty by twenty returns her as a recognisable figure. The Statement at ninety by thirty is where the torch separates from the arm. If you are weighing a size against a specific wall, choosing the right print size covers the measurements and the viewing distances in more detail.
What changes at the largest size?
At ninety by thirty, working across the frame: at the left the Empire State Building's crown lighting separates into its stepped tiers. Through the middle the lit windows across the towers become individually countable, and the horizontal banding on the facade of One World Trade Center reads as separate floors. The starbursts on the spire lights hold as discrete rays rather than as blobs. At the centre the Statue of Liberty resolves from a point into a figure, with the torch clear of the arm and the pedestal distinct beneath her. Along the waterline the pier lights and ferry terminals separate into individual fittings. And across the water the reflected light breaks into separate columns rather than a general sheen. Why scale matters covers what happens perceptually when a photograph reaches the size where the eye has to cross it.
What kind of room does this photograph suit?
A long wall in a room where people sit. A living room, a dining room, a study, a bar, a wide landing. Hang it at standard height with the centre at about fifty-seven inches. On materials it wants cool neutrals, charcoal and grey plaster and matte dark timber, so the warm band across the city stays the only warm thing in view. Three things to avoid. Do not hang it where the nearest a viewer can stand is more than about twelve feet, since at that range it collapses into a strip of lights. Use neutral bulbs rather than warm ones, because the city band is already fifty-six points warm and a warm lamp spreads that across the sky and the water. And do not hang another night cityscape in the same sightline, since the two will be compared building by building rather than looked at. When your mind needs to rest takes the question further.
Every work ships insured and arrives with a signed certificate of authenticity.
If a piece is damaged in transit, the choice of replacement is always yours, and your edition number stays with you.
Production time runs 2 to 3 weeks for metal, 3 to 4 weeks for acrylic and paper, and 5 to 6 weeks for framed work.
Each print is made to order and takes its place in a numbered edition, so sales are final. Before you choose, I am glad to help: send a photo of your wall and I will show you this work in your room at true scale, at no charge. Start a conversation
Collector's Choice · TruLife ® Acrylic in Italian Frame
Collector Edition of 25· Lumachrome TruLife Acrylic · Handcrafted Italian Frame
TruLife acrylic in a handcrafted Italian frame with a linen liner chosen for the image. Frame series, finish, and liner are settled with you after the order, and production begins from there. The frame and liner add about fourteen inches to the finished dimensions, worth allowing for when planning placement.
Signature Acrylic Edition of 50· Lumachrome TruLife · Gallery Float Mount
Face-mounted to TruLife acrylic and floated approximately one inch from the wall, with no frame to mediate between the image and the room. UV-resistant, anti-reflective, and scratch-resistant, with a lifetime guarantee against fading.
Signature Metal Edition of 50· ChromaLuxe Print · Gallery Float Mount
Color infused into the aluminum panel itself, floated from the wall on a concealed system. Where acrylic produces luminosity, metal produces clarity. Exceptional fade resistance with no glazing or coating required.
Fine Art Edition of 100· Hahnemühle Baryta Fine Art Paper
Printed without acrylic, so light meets the paper surface directly. Highlights stay luminous, shadows keep their nuance, and the surface has a tactile quality the other presentations approach differently. The understated choice, and the traditional one.
Complimentary shipping within the continental United States. International collector shipping available upon request.
Still deciding
Designing for Stillness
A guide to choosing art for restorative spaces
How to tell whether an image will still hold you in a year, how scale changes what a photograph does in a room, and how to match a piece to the work a room actually performs. It cites the research it draws on, and it is equally clear about where that research stops. About ten minutes to read.
