New York

Music and architecture are connected. When I hear some genres of music I think of architecture, cityscapes and streetscapes.

Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin makes me think of New York in the 1920s and 1930s. The opening clarinet rising to a high note conjures up a picture of the Chrysler Building. My viewpoint rises from street level right up to the top of the building, with the 1930s Manhattan skyline visible beyond. I feel I have a connection with the New York of that time as my father lived there from around 1929 to 1931.

A Kind of Blue, the album by Miles Davis, also gives me strong visual associations with Manhattan in the 1950s. The album was recorded in 1959 in New York. When I hear it I can see a yellow cab making its way uptown by mostly empty warehouses.

Does my mental association come from a magical quality of the music to capture the essence of time and place, or is it just that I know it was recorded in New York at around this time? I think it could be a bit of both.

Another group that for me capture the atmosphere of New York is Weather Report. They recorded in the 1970s and 80s and that’s the era I think of. I was in New York in summer 1981, around 50 years after my father was there. When I listen to Weather Report, I can see yellow cabs, the subway, the Twin Towers, the streets and highways.

There is a quality of nostalgia, like the films of Elliott Bristow, with whom I worked when I was in New York. There’s a frustration with taking photos today. The USA of today is quite different from the one we have in our minds from times past.

The cover of the album ‘The Best of Weather Report’ has a remarkable photograph that completely echoes the images in my mind. It looks to me like it was taken on the West Side Highway at a traffic intersection. It must be looking west, as it appears to be a dusk sky.

On a visit to New York and Philadelphia, I took photos in a similar style to the Weather Report album cover. I’ve always found street lighting to be an important part of the cityscape and very visually interesting, especially at nightfall when the lights start to glow against the dusk sky.

These photos are not going to win any photography prizes. I don’t take photos to win prizes or to make money. I take photos to capture my mental impressions and make them visible to others.

All photos taken on the Canon 550D digital SLR camera with the Tamron 16-300mm zoom lens.

Many fascinating architectural features can be seen way above street level if you lift your eyes. The retro style street lamps are typically New York.

The rooftops of buildings in New York are often full of detail and surprises, mostly unplanned. In addition to the water towers there are now cellphone masts. I’d love to live up there.

Suspended traffic lights above East Houston Street Manhattan. I’ve made the image black and white except for the green traffic lights in the lower right.

A typically American scene. These are American style lamp posts. In Europe, power cables are under the ground.

This is a typically north American design of street light. Power lines cut across the frame. I made the picture black and white but left the amber colour in the light.

Dusk is a special time for photographers. The dusk light has almost drained from the sky. I took several photos from this location using the zoom lens.

A Sunoco advert next to Interstate 95 with the Philadelphia skyline in the distance.

A street lamp on Interstate I-95 and the Philadelphia skyline with the distinctive form of One and Two Liberty Place.

The scene at dusk is full of atmosphere. The lights of Liberty Place are off as it’s the weekend. To the right is the Comcast Center.

Industrial buildings are considered ugly and uninteresting but I find they have a special fascination. The light from the sunset lends a painterly quality to the scene.

The random shapes of the industrial buildings, chimneys and the water tower have a special fascination at dusk. This could be another era – the 70s, 50s or even the 30s.

I love the effect of buildings silhouetted against the sky. Everything is reduced to a simple arrangement of forms.

Street lighting and traffic lights in south Philadelphia at dusk. Taken from the window of a car. With contemporary cars and other features hidden, the scene could be any time in the recent past. The clouds at the top and silhouette at the bottom make a composition of thirds.

To me this is beautiful and typically New York. The tall buildings leave canyons between them, interspersed with lights, which have not yet come on. This is a composition of vertical thirds.