Snow snaps

Some of the photos in the book appeared in Vivienne Gucwa's 2014 title NY through the lens where they worked well enough by blending into images of the city through the seasons. Unfortunately this book isn't nearly so successful. Snow photography works best when it's captured as freshly fallen and has an untouched surface, near impossible in a city with people and traffic.

Central Park obviously would give some good images, tops of buildings and private areas visible from the street, statues and contemporary art (like Robert Indiana's Love sculpture on Sixth Avenue). Far too many photos in this book have been taken from the middle of a street, after dark, looking into a blurry distance, the snow has been disturbed by pedestrians and cars and so losing much of its magic.

There are some good shots but really this is not much more than a collection of snow snaps of Manhattan.