BY JACKSON CHEN | New Yorkers might complain that they don’t get enough natural sunlight, or alternatively carp about glaring rays suddenly blinding them. But on two days this week — July 11 and 12 — the sun was recognized, all over Manhattan, for the star it truly is.
On four occasions each year, the sun plays the lead role in the architectural and cultural phenomenon known as Manhattanhenge, where the setting ball of light and heat perfectly aligns with the grid-like design of the borough. The manmade marvel began its viral spread after photos popped up in 2011 showing a stunning solar sphere at the western edge of the stretching cityscape. Coined by pop-culture astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson in a nod to Stonehenge, Manhattanhenge now attracts crowds at the borough’s widest east-west thoroughfares, especially 57th, 42nd, 34th, 23rd, and 14th Streets.
After disappointing performances on May 29 and 30 — the clouds stole the show on those dates — the sun returned for its July 11 and 12 appearances at 8:20 p.m., as city dwellers hoped to redeem their earlier dashed hopes.
Chris Bond and his wife, London transplants who live on the Upper West Side, stationed themselves at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue on July 11, prepared well in advance for show time. It wasn’t the Bonds’ first attempt to capture the phenomenon, having been let down alongside many other New Yorkers during the late May occurrences.
“We came here about a month and a half ago to the same place,” Bond said. “I got some decent pictures but I didn’t actually get the sun itself.”
Despite a forecast warning of some clouds during the day, the Bonds were upbeat that they would grab their sought-after shot.
The couple was joined by a horde of nature-loving photographers as well as many hungry for no-brainer Instagram likes. Each time the intersection’s 57th Street traffic light turned red, dozens would swarm into the crosswalk to try to capture the moment among the blaring taxi horns and bewildered passersby.
For the more experienced, setting up at a choice spot required hours of effort upfront. Seeking an elevated view away from the upstreamers who would otherwise end up in their shot, many New Yorkers had seized the Park Avenue Viaduct over 42nd Street at Grand Central Terminal on May 29 and 30 equipped with tripods as well as a healthy patience for crowds.
This time around, would-be star photogs received the boot from police, according to Edwin Martinez, who then scrambled uptown for the sunset.
“On the overpass, there was a ton of us there, everyone with their tripods set up,” Martinez, a paramedic by trade and a photographer by hobby, said. “We were just counting down the minutes when the Port Authority police [more likely, in fact, the MTA police] came out and chased everybody off the bridge.”
Like Martinez, others on the viaduct scurried elsewhere so they wouldn’t miss their chance. Some, no doubt, headed a few avenues east to the Tudor City Bridge — another elevated spot that drew a big crowd in late May — but Martinez chose to head toward his wife’s workplace near the 57th and Fifth vantage point.
This wasn’t Martinez’ first rodeo, as it were. He explained that the best angle to capture the phenomenon is from the center of the street, but said that in attempting that shot photographers should use varying levels of exposure because of the sun blasting light directly into the lens.
For iPhone users in the crowd, like the mother-daughter duo of Gail and Lindsay Krieger, that meant tapping the screen before shooting to automatically adjust for exposure. According to the Kriegers, who ventured in from Long Island, their phone cameras provided the best option in pulling together their spontaneous outing.
Regardless of the equipment used to shoot the sunset, the unspoken but overwhelmingly popular technique employed was crossing into the center of the busy Manhattan streets — ignoring the habitually hectic flow of Midtown drivers as well as those parking or pulling out — and snapping several shots before retreating to the parked, or double-parked cars, that provided cover.
The sunset, of course, was fleeting, but for some photographers a more enduring image — as much a part of the fun as Manhattanhenge itself — was the crowd it attracted.
“I think the most interesting part for me was not Manhattanhenge,” Alex Gong, a Hell’s Kitchen resident, said. “It was the people who are shooting those images. I think the best photo I got today is of people.”
