New York has always had a talent for remaining relevant. From the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge to the worlds of jazz, fashion, art, nightlife and contemporary politics, the city repeatedly finds itself at the centre of cultural change. Few places have been photographed so extensively and yet New York somehow continues to produce images we have not seen before. “I <3 NY”, the new autumn exhibition at PREISS FINE ARTS, looks at this enduring fascination through the lenses of some of the most important photographers of the past decades.

“Girl in New York City” by DAVID DREBIN

For David Drebin, New York becomes cinematic. His photographs transform rooftops, apartments, windows and illuminated skylines into stages for stories that seem to have begun before we arrived. His female figures often appear caught between intimacy and spectacle, while the city stretches beyond them like another character in the scene. Drebin’s photographs are immediately seductive, but their lasting appeal lies in their ambiguity: each image suggests a narrative without ever fully revealing it.

“Anouk Dirske, NYC” by ALBERT WATSON

What makes New York such an inexhaustible subject? Perhaps it is the constant collision of ambition, glamour, anonymity and reinvention. The city can be monumental one moment and intensely private the next. The photographers in “I <3 NY” move between these two extremes: from spectacular views across Manhattan to hotel rooms, backstage corridors, fashion shows and portraits made only a few feet away from their subjects. Together, the works reveal a city that is less a fixed place than an atmosphere, one continually created by the people who inhabit it.

“Lauren Hutton for Ultima Revlon, 1975” by ARTHUR ELGORT

Other works bring us closer to the personalities who have shaped New York’s visual culture. Photographers including Arthur Elgort, Sante D’Orazio and Albert Watson developed distinctive languages within fashion and portrait photography at a time when magazines played an extraordinary role in defining how the world saw style, beauty and celebrity. Their photographs go beyond documenting a famous face or a particular fashion moment. Through gesture, composition and an unmistakable individual point of view, they created images that have become part of the visual memory of their era.

“Speaking, Hearing, and Seeing No Evil at the Fashion Group Party, Plaza Hotel, NYC 1989 – Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington” by ROXANNE LOWIT

Roxanne Lowit occupies a particularly special place in this story. A true New York icon, Lowit was present wherever the city’s creative world converged: Studio 54, major fashion shows, parties and the intimate moments shared backstage by the supermodels and designers who defined an era. Long before social media made candid access part of everyday visual culture, Lowit understood the power of the seemingly unguarded moment. She did not simply photograph New York’s inner circles—she lived among them.

“Anthology, Liquid Light #1067”
by HOWARD SCHATZ

The exhibition also demonstrates how differently a single city can be interpreted. In the hands of Albert Watson, a portrait can become almost sculptural; in the work of Howard Schatz, photography moves toward abstraction, experimentation and the transformation of the human form. Alongside the immediacy of Lowit’s snapshots and the cinematic narratives of Drebin, these approaches underline the central idea of “I <3 NY”: New York has no definitive image. Its identity is continually reconstructed through the eyes of those who photograph it.

“Warhol” by ALBERT WATSON

For collectors, this history gives the works another dimension. These are not simply familiar images reproduced from the age of magazines or circulated digitally; the works presented by PREISS FINE ARTS are limited-edition fine art photographs, created as physical objects with a defined edition, provenance and place within an artist’s body of work. As many of these photographers become increasingly central to the history of fashion, portrait and fine art photography, their prints preserve something inherently finite: an artist’s particular vision of a city, a person and a moment that will never exist in quite the same way again. 2I <3 NY” is ultimately a celebration of that ability of photography—to take a city that never stands still and make one extraordinary instant endure.

“Cheeky Kate, Kate Moss” by RANKIN