Chambers Street is lined with 19th Century buildings as it crosses the city’s old downtown. Fire has always been a threat to such buildings and it remains so today.
I wanted to make a building picture that speaks to this danger. As I walked along Chambers Street I found a fire escape directly overhead. Just across the street was an old building in the process of renovation. Using a 28mm wideangle lens, I was able to get both into my frame, and waited for those two clouds, which imply smoke, to flow out of the old building. Part of the lower cloud is quite dark, throwing a shadow that implies threat. Even the modern structure at lower right helps, offering an incongruous counterpoint and placing the image in the present time.