One World Trade Center

One World Trade Center, rising on the site of the original towers, was nearing completion in 2013 — at 1,776 feet it would become the tallest building in the western hemisphere. Its tapering glass form was built to catch and throw the light, a deliberate beacon at the foot of the island.

Photographed May 2013. Shot into the sun, a sunburst flares off the tower's edge and the glass glows white, the surrounding downtown towers held in shadow, a tree branch at the upper corner. In black and white the building becomes light itself — the most loaded view in the gallery, handled as pure radiance.