The Big Apple seen here is the fruit of a five-year project undertaken in all seasons by of the finest photographers with a special eye for the world's greatest city. And the eye at work in Panoramic New York is very special indeed, given that its owner, Richard Berenholtz, spent an earlier period as an architectural designer with major New York firms before he launched upon a full-time career as a professional photographer. This accounts for the almost surreal combination of microscopic crispness and majestic breadth that makes his views of the great metropolis so dazzling. With unprecedented brilliance, Berenholtz's work captures in the full force of their drama the classic urbanscapes and monuments that for generations have thrilled visitors and local residents alike.

With its great scale and long, stretched-out water-fronts, Manhattan lends itself particularly well to Berenholtz's panoramic camera and, in turn, to the wide, double-page spreads that abound in this beautiful, all-color book. Most spectacular among these sweeping perspectives are vast suspension bridges leaping across rivers towards thickets of glistening skyscrapers, as well as familiar scenes rendered strange or just deliciously fresh by original angles and apocalyptic skies. Punctuating them are more tightly focused images of such archetypal sites as the helical Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Gothic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the piazzas of Lincoln Center, the crystalline Javis convention facility, and Central Park in all its picturesque variety of nature and culture. When isolated by Berenholtz's penetrating lens, even graffiti-filled walls and the porno shops along 42nd Street take on a startling beauty. For lovers of exceptional photography and an exceptional city, Panormaic New York, with its 70 plates in full color, will prove a source of endless wonder and delight.

About the Contributor(s)

Richard Berenholtz is known for his books entitled Manhattan Architecture (1988) and Inside New York (1992), as well as for his photographs published in Time, Life, American Photographer, and Graphis.

Paul Goldberger has long written on architecture for the New York Times and presently serves as the paper's Cultural News Editor. In addition, he is the author of several much-admired books on architecture.