The massive towers of Midtown Manhattan dwarf a man who holds a cell phone to his ear. He is surrounded by thousands of people but for him only one person really matters at the moment – the person he is speaking to. The image is incongruous because of the disparity in scale between the man and his environment. He is but a tiny fragment of the total image, yet he stands out because of his placement in the frame and the flow of light and shadow around him.

There is another incongruous aspect to the image as well. The huge pillar that dominates the image once marked the corner of one of the New York’s most elegant 20th century department stores at Madison Avenue and 34th Street. The vague imprint of its name -- “B. Altman’s” – can still be faintly seen etched on one of the 95-year-old limestone blocks. This section of the store was opened in 1914 and closed in 1989. The building now serves other tenants, while the department store itself becomes ever more obscure – as obscure to most of us as the lone figure who bends over his cell phone in the morning sunlight.