In 1960, the tall, slender towers, around which small and medium-high buildings huddled in unruly diversity as if seeking protection, seemed like a mirage. On my first walks across Manhattan, I looked up constantly, rendered speechless by the beauty of the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, the Chrysler and Woolworth Buildings. “Cathedrals of the Sky” they are often called. In front of them I felt infinitely small, reminded of my mortality.

Years went by before I called New York City my home without reservations. Not until I changed my profession from being a painter to being a photographer. Exploring the city in all its detail, I began to see its inner and outer structure, its light and dark sides, the continuous change between incomparable beauty and oppressive banality.

Time and again, the architecture of this metropolis fascinates me as an eloquent testimony of its economic and cultural importance, as well as for its social structure. America’s liberal and democratic thinking is expressed in an unbridled eclecticism of architectural styles: Neo-Classicism, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance, Beaux Arts, Art Deco, Bauhaus, and Modernism are often united in close vicinity. In my photographs, I have captured some of these elements, including changed moods after a snowfall, the play of clouds on the glass fronts of skyscrapers, or a rare sun ray that cuts its way between skyscrapers, bestowing delight like a precious gift.

I did not intend to give the viewer a formal introduction into New York’s architecture. Neither did I derive meaning from or would wish to compete with touristy postcard views taken from ideal vantage points or helicopters. Rather, my photographs are a reflection of how a New Yorker experiences his or her city.

Carin Drechsler-Marx