Haunting images of Central Park in the middle of the night

New York City’s Central Park is one of the most recognized places on earth. It has appeared in countless movies, tv shows and books. You probably have some kind of image of what the park looks like firmly tucked away in the back of your mind. But photographer Michael Massaia has given us a totally new vision of the park in his series, “Deep in a Dream Central Park.”

Plagued by insomnia, Massaia began walking around the park in the early hours of the morning as a way to deal with his sleepless nights. Massaia began to feel an intimate connection with the park, saying “being in that park all alone gave me the feeling like I was discovering something that was all mine….in many ways it was like I was sticking my flag in the ground/staking claim to a small darkened corner of the city.  To feel like there was still that opportunity for discovery in a place like New York City was very exciting for me.”

The project began in 2009 and Massaia continues to add new pictures to this day. All of the pictures were made with large format cameras using black and white film. Massaia then took the resulting negatives and hand printed them, making lush Platinum prints. The result is a body of work that creates a haunting, moody, almost cinematic experience for the viewer.

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