They say New York is the city that never sleeps. There’s a lot of truth to that. The streets of Manhattan remain active long after most other cities have shut down for the night, making New York especially rewarding for nighttime street photography.

As you probably know, I’m primarily an urban photographer, and places like New York allow me to practice my craft during the day and well into the night. In fact, I prefer shooting after dark, as long as I feel safe doing so.

I was on Sixth Avenue in a tourist-heavy section of Manhattan and had little concern for my safety. The street-food vendors, with their glowing lights surrounded by deep shadows, created wonderfully moody scenes to photograph. Using the manual-focus Leica M Monochrom added another layer of friction, making it even more satisfying when a picture came out the way I had hoped.

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