NYNY

There's a particular hour in Las Vegas when the city stops pretending to be anything other than exactly what it is — raw, excessive, brilliantly alive. Daniel has lived in this city for decades, has photographed it in every light, and still he returns to the Strip when the sky goes black and the neon takes over. This image was made in that hour. The New York-New York Hotel stands here as a kind of American dream doubled back on itself — a replica skyline built inside a city that is itself a kind of replica of ambition. The Statue of Liberty holds her torch center frame, surrounded by towers that glow amber and gold against a sky that has gone completely dark. The roller coaster curves its red arc behind her like punctuation. And in the foreground, traffic has dissolved into long red and white ribbons of light, the city's constant motion written directly onto the frame.