East River from the Empire State Building

The observation deck of the Empire State Building, opened in 1931, looks out over the whole spread of the city and its rivers — a view that turns Manhattan into a model of itself and the water into a bright ribbon at the edge of the grid.

Photographed May 2013. The building's own stone coping rounds across the foreground as the city falls away to the river and the haze beyond. In black and white the rooftops become texture and the water becomes light — the city seen from the place built to see it from.