The Flatiron Building is a unique limestone wedge that neatly fits into the crossing diagonals of New York’s most famous streets, Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Designed by the famed architect Daniel Burnham in 1902, it appeared one year later in one of Alfred Stieglitz’s most famous images: http://masters-of-photography.com/S/stieglitz/stieglitz_flatiron_building_full.html
I have always been moved by that image – its prow moves through its snow swept setting like a ship adrift in a winter storm. It was a challenge for me to photograph the same structure 103 years later without any hint of Stieglitz in it. To do so, I decided to use this famous building as context rather than subject matter. I use as my base layer, the abstracted statue of Lincoln’s Secretary of State William H. Seward in Madison Square Park just across the street from the Flatiron Building. It was late in the day, and the low sun outlined Seward’s body with rim lighting as I shot his statue from behind. I use Burnham’s famous façade as my backdrop, filling my frame with its windows, many of them reflecting the deep blue sky and the surrounding buildings. Floor after floor flows through the image as a series of rhythmic diagonals, including one near the top created by a slash of sunlight. We never see the famous prow that gives the Flatiron its distinctive shape. My goal was not to describe the Flatiron Building, but rather to embrace a historical figure with a historical backdrop.