Shooting this long exposure night photography of the New Jersey skyline from the Manhattan shore, I stood by the water’s edge and let the cold wind settle. As the shutter stayed open, the rough currents of the Hudson River smoothed out into a sheet of dark, obsidian glass, reflecting the intricate grid of artificial lights from the buildings across the bay. Above, slow-moving clouds smeared across the dark sky, giving the entire landscape a mysterious, heavily atmospheric sci-fi feeling. Staring at the glowing architecture across the void, it felt less like looking at a neighboring state and more like observing a silent, distant colony on another world. I took this photograph to capture that eerie, otherworldly stillness that exists just past the edge of the restless city.
New York City, USA, 2023
