New York City abstract building

The VIA 57 West residential building is in Hell's Kitchen (625 West 57th Street), New York City. The 35 stories pyramid-shaped tower block was designed by the Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group.

Abstract view of 'VIA 57 West' pyramid-shaped tower block building Manhattan, New York

The closeup architectural detailed photograph of a New York City abstract building was shot during my walking tours of Manhattan, New York. Although the image has been photographed countless times, this image questions whether the image is real or some abstract composed in Photoshop.

My goal for this image was to have the viewer question the reality? Is this something composed in Photoshop? There is no Photoshop manipulation in the New York City abstract building photograph. Instead, I carefully composed the image so that the dividing edges were dead center.

Pro-Tip

I love the architecture of this New York City building. It's a sharp contrast to other buildings I have shot in Manhattan and New Jersey. I have shot this 'abstract' condominium on many occasions, from many angles. In particular, I previsualized the final image on this occasion before pressing the button on my Sony mirrorless camera.

Previsualization is where the photographer can see (visualize) the final print before the image has been captured. Ansel Adams often comments that “Visualization is the single most important factor in photography”. On a recent trip to Maine, I had the pleasure of talking to Paul Caponigro which knew and worked with Ansel. He joked about how Ansel would continuously stress "previsualization".

I was looking for an angle where I could split the two portions of the image equally—creating an abstraction of reality. Since the image had minimal color other than a blue cast from the sky, I immediately saw this as a high contrast black and white image.