This enormous, 12"×18" book with 220 carefully composed shots and 12 gatefolds should be the New York photo book of the season. Berenholtz (Panoramic New York) does not match 19th-century Paris photographer Eugene Atget's elegant encyclopedism, but his compositions exude the patience and calm needed to get the money shots: the Cloisters, afternoon shadows striping the Metropolitan Museum of Art's solarium, the recently replaced Planetarium, the familiar interior and exterior orbits of the Guggenheim. And given that the book was in preparation a year before September 11, there are monumental pictures of the World Trade Center, captured in more lights and at more angles than many people will conceivably want or need. Yet even the most jaded photo connoisseur will find Berenholtz's pictures of Grand Central Station spectacular, and the Times Square and full skyline panoramas breathtaking. The shots of more anonymous facade details, lesser known parks, subway stations, and bridges other than the Brooklyn feel fresh. The light and the weather play starring roles here, as pains seem to have been taken to eliminate people and cars. Berenholtz used no filters, but coaxes deep and often surprising colors out of the skies and facades. If the lush printing can sometimes feel a little late-'90s glitzy, the whole strikes an excellent balance between garish and grounded, much like New York itself. (Oct. 1)
Forecast:This book's grand scale comes at a price, but it is anything but an instant book, reflecting serious preparation and care, and it should trounce the very-high-end competition in the fall's sure-to-be-hot New York gift book season. Rizzoli is limiting the run to 5,000 copies and says it won't go back to press. If the book gets major attention, which it should, expect the issue of antipopulism to be raised, not so much in terms of price, but of exclusivity.
