It was 2014, and photographer George Steinmetz flew over Met Life Stadium in a helicopter to shoot pictures of the Super Bowl from the sky.
But when he got there, he and his pilot soon discovered it was bundled in black insulation to keep it from freezing. "It was blown up like a bubble; there wasn’t anything to see," he told The Huffington Post. "I said to myself, 'I’m in the air, I better keep looking around.'"
The photographer, who has taken pictures from the air above 50 countries for publications such as National Geographic, the New York Times Magazine and Time, realized he'd never seen New York City's parks, cemeteries, rail yards, condos and boroughs from the air in winter.
"It was spectacular," he said. "I went up three or four more times that winter. I was hooked."
From a helicopter, Steinmetz saw the city from a unique perspective and spent the rest of 2014 taking what he calls "an aerial portrait of New York City" for his forthcoming book, "New York Air: The View From Above," out through Abrams Books on October 13 this year.
"While I was in the middle of [the project]," he said, "I wanted to make the definitive piece on New York, and realized it was impossible because the city changed so fast. I realized I had to do it in one year, all four seasons. That was about as complete as I could get. Now I've finished the book on New Years Eve last year and already there’s a whole mess of new buildings."
Throughout 30 to 40 flights, Steinmetz said he watched from the sky as the seasons' colors changed from winter's black and whites to the technicolor of spring and autumn. He noticed how New Yorkers seemed to crawl out from hibernation and run for the parks and pools in the summer.
Steinmetz told HuffPost the city was inspiring to watch for a year, because while other U.S. cities are beautiful, "You don't have the kind of diversity you have in New York City, seasonally and architecturally, and in the history and geography there." He added, I started thinking that after I finished New York, what do I do next? I was kind of stumped. It’s difficult to find something as diverse, and I’ll probably have to go to another country [to find it.]"
If you can't wait for the book to come out, Steinmetz posts previews on Instagram, along with historical facts and trivia of each location, written by him and Abrams' Editor-in-Chief, Eric Himmel.
"The cladding for the top of the Chrysler Building was fabricated in sheet-metal shops on the 65th and 67th floors. The iconic seventy-seven story Chrysler Building was the world’s tallest for only eleven months, until the Empire State Building surpassed it in 1931, but no skyscraper has ever surpassed its design." -- George Steinmetz on Instagram.
"The Bayonne Golf Club is built on the lumpy ground of 7.5 million cubic yards of sludge dredged from New York Harbor. The views of Lower Manhattan from here are stunning, and for those who don’t like driving, the pro shop offers helicopter and boat services." -- George Steinmetz on Instagram.
"The last rays of sunlight reflect off the top of One World Trade, with the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges in the background." -- George Steinmetz on Instagram.
"There are many hidden worlds in Manhattan, like this rooftop pool on 40th Street & 2nd Avenue on an early summer evening." -- George Steinmetz on Instagram.
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