“Pennsylvania Station from the top of the Hotel New Yorker at 34th and 8th Avenue”
Like all good photographs, this image is more than merely a technically outstanding pictorial record of a place and and a time – though it’s certainly that.
It’s taken for granted that light comes from above.
In this image, light comes from below.
Obviously taken at night, the myriad sources of illumination in the photo arise from “below” – from within Penn Station – through the windows of nearby and distant buildings – from streetlights – and combine to impart a sense of mystery, wonder, and life.
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Here’s a May, 2009, view of the photograph’s vantage point by dave_7 from Lethbridge, Canada: the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel, at 481 Eighth Avenue. Presumably, the photo was taken from one of the structure’s numerous parapets.
Given the location of Penn Station relative to the hotel, I think that that the orientation of the field of view captured in the postcard image corresponds to the triangle in the map below: Given that the the photographer was positioned at the hotel – at the “top” of the triangle – then he was facing south-southeast.
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Photograph by Acme Photo Service, Inc. (dissolved in 1990).
(Image scanned from postcard 2659, published by Underwood Photo Archives in 1992.)
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