A dramatic view of downtown Philadelphia buildings at night, buildings illuminated only by the light their neighboring giants leak through brightened windows. I love how photos like these require so much more time studying the details in the image; just as it takes so much longer to develop a photo like this at night. Each window lights another level, another scene and creates another story to be told.

Ryan and I stayed at our friend Clifton and Jason’s penthouse apartment in Philadelphia while we were there last week for a holiday party. Each time I visit Clifton he delivers to me me great opportunities to take interesting photos. This night in particular Clifton lead us to the roof of his building to get a view of the downtown Philadelphia from around 25 floors up.

This view isn’t afforded to many and it really is too bad. Cities, quite literally, light up at night. There are things invisible to the day and unapproachable from ground level; the structures and functions that sit atop the roofs of these buildings for instance.

I was inspired to create this particular image through my photography professor Joe Johnson‘s project, City Pictures. This series catalogues the views from (mostly) New York City apartment rooftops. There is one print from this series in particular I treasure titled Compression, 2003.