Inescapable image for a foreigner coming to the big city. The title is a bit corny : what kind of essence is that ? Well, the Empire State Building is hidden behind another high tower ! It is truncated, mainly because I wanted to keep parallel lines… also because it is so huge. And the light is probably unique and therefore an essential character of New York. Nowhere else will you find such a sharp light in an urban landscape. Where is the pollution ? Everything is so detailed that it looks more like an illustration than reality. Even this untreated picture looks fake. But it has not been retouched in any way. This is what you can see from the window of a sixteenth floor room. In Paris, the light is always soft, even on a sunny day after the rain. Most of the time it is almost creamy. Nowadays, it is very often yellowish due to the pollution. But here, in this enormously noisy maze of narrow streets where pollution should be visible, it almost looks too clear. As if One had at last cleaned one's glasses.