Todd Webb photographed New York City day and night, in all seasons and in all weather, a somewhat down-at-heel flâneur enthralled by the city’s grand architecture and brash neon, its characters passing in throngs or wandering, as he did, alone. Working in the tradition of the great twentieth-century American photographers Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans and Ansel Adams, Webb captured every scene, whether in Harlem, Times Square, the Village or Coney Island, with the same sympathetic eye. The result is a vibrant celebration of bustling mid-century New York that would otherwise be lost to history.

Todd Webb (1905–2000) was a renowned American photographer. Sean Corcoran is the Curator of Prints and Photographs at the Museum of the City of New York. Daniel Okrent, a writer and editor, is best known for having served as the first public editor of The New York Times.