Z-PIER

Manhattan skyline moments before sunrise.

New York, February, 2016

I wake up early in the morning, or rather, in the middle of the night. My phone indicates that it is 3:54 a.m. I stay in bed a while longer and a few minutes later my alarm goes off. I notice that I am still quite tired. The temptation to go back to sleep is great but my passion for photography always wins. I don't have much choice either, because at the end of the week I am already flying home and this is the only day of the week that the weather still appears good for a sunrise photo. It is still dark outside and I hear police sirens in the distance, that's something you get used to when you are in Manhattan. I quickly take a shower and moments later I am outside in front of my hotel. It is cold and a bit windy. I must seem crazy to walk through New York in the middle of the night, but I have never felt unsafe here. 

It took some work, but I had managed to find the location the day before. A few months ago I had seen an image on the web with a beautiful view of the New York City skyline. In the foreground of the picture a Z-shaped pier in the water. Because Manhattan is between two rivers, it had to be on the Hudson or East River. After some Googling, it turned out to be the Hudson River. The photo was taken from the New Jersey side of New York. The perfect location to photograph a sunrise. In 2014, I spent three months photographing in New York. I thought I'd seen a lot, but strangely enough I had not been on the other side of the Hudson River. I had mainly explored Brooklyn and Queens. I had not visited New Jersey, even though it is right next to New York.

The city that never sleeps. It has its advantages in the middle of the night. There is always a place open to get a coffee. I give the man working in the night shop three dollars and take the coffee to go. The streets are quieter than I expected. I am walking towards Ground Zero with my camera equipment in a backpack. A new station was (re)opened a few months earlier. An impressive pure white station reminiscent of the skeleton of an animal. Arriving at the station it has already gotten more crowded. I meet the first people who head out to work early or those who just come back from work. In New York people often work at night because of the tourists. At night I once saw a large group of painters with lamps on their heads, painting the Brooklyn Bridge. Thousands of people walk across this bridge during the day, so maintenance is mostly done at night. 

New Jersey can be reached by metro via the Path route. It only takes a few minutes to get on the other side of the Hudson River. When I get off the metro at Newport Station (New Jersey), I am almost at the Z pier. I quickly walk into a nearby Starbucks to get coffee number two. I am cold, because the wind has picked up. Fortunately, in addition to my hot coffee, I brought my gloves and a hat. I install my camera on the Z-pier spot where I had been the day before. Now it’s only a matter of waiting for the light show to start. The first photos I take are too dark. I wait a few minutes and slowly see the Manhattan skyline getting brighter. I put a filter in front of my camera lens to use a longer exposure time. This gives the photo a nice effect. In the meantime I ran out of my coffee, and I start to jump a little to stay warm. Then I see the first rays of sunlight behind the skyline. In my excitement I forget all about the cold. My camera is constantly taking photos. Such a magical moment. The city is slowly waking up.

Manhattan skyline

In the corner of my eye I see someone walking towards me. It's a female police officer. For a moment a thought runs through my mind. Am I doing something that’s not allowed? A happy smile and a friendly “Good morning” are quick to reassure me. She passes by initially. Then she turns around. “I walk here every morning to my job. I always think, somebody should take a picture here.” I tell her it is indeed a fantastic view. “I will see your picture in Time Magazine”, she says with a wink and walks off. I laugh and shoot some more photos. By then the best moment has passed. The sun is now shining above the skyline and it is starting to get nice and warm. I walk into Starbucks for coffee number three, and sit down at a table. I look surprised at a man sitting at the table next to me. There are four cups of coffee and two glasses of water. Apparently, my coffee addiction is not that bad. The man spontaneously starts telling me an elaborate story about his fight against NASA. According to him, it was all a setup. Man has never been on the moon and all the videos from space are fake. Fascinated, I keep listening to him for a while. After about an hour I am done with it. I thank him and wish him the best of luck in his fight. I grab my camera bag and return by metro to my hotel to catch a few more hours of sleep.

Marcel Kerdijk