The Jersey City Skyline from Liberty State Park

I arrived at Statue City Cruises at Liberty State Park thirty minutes before the 11 AM ferry — enough to clear security and still have time to look around. I was there for a field trip to Ellis Island’s Abandoned Infectious Disease Hospital with the Princeton Photo Workshop. While I waited, I turned the camera towards Paulus Hook. The Empty Sky Memorial runs along the foreground — a long concrete wall that frames the Jersey City skyline behind it. The tallest building is 30 Hudson Street, near the Hudson Waterfront Walkway. You can also make out the tops of Liberty Towers. The light wasn’t doing me any favours. Midday sun flattens everything. The scene would be something else in early morning light, when the glass facades might catch something worth exposing for. But I won’t get that shot without special access to the ferry terminal before it officially opens, and that seems unlikely. I’ve stood in Paulus Hook before often with a camera in my backpack or iPhone in hand. When I worked in the Financial District — near Old Slip and Water Street — I took the ferry from Paulus Hook to Pier 11 three times a week. It was a reasonably comfortable commute in spring and autumn. In winter, waiting on that exposed dock was genuinely unpleasant. In summer, the heat and humidity made it worse. The view across the Hudson was always the same, but the experience of standing in it changed with every season. This image isn’t a snapshot, but it isn’t quite what I wanted either. It’s a record of a place I know from a different angle, made while waiting to go somewhere else.