Broadway and 44th Street

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While walking around New York City, where he lives, Ray Mortenson noticed that tourists often pointed their cameras upward, toward the tops of tall skyscrapers. He decided to do the same, to see what they were seeing. The process became an enjoyable one, and Mortenson has described how “Over the course of one year, the images seemed to simply fall from the sky.” Presented as traditional gelatin silver ferrotype prints (also known as tintypes), the pictures may look like earlier views of New York as a modern city in the 1930s. At the same time, they also include newer architectural styles and illuminated displays.