IN PICTURES: At 2012 Manhattanhenge, sun becomes celebrity

It was a tough year for weather at Manhattanhenge but the sun was clearly quite the celebrity. Would it show up? Would we be dazzled by even a fleeting glimpse? The REAL story here was the Manhattanhenge paparazzi. Camped out for hours on the Tudor City bridge on 42nd Street, there were professional news crews, videographers, amateur SLR photographers, people with point and shoots and iPhones, confused children, confused pedestrians.

On Tuesday when it became clear (at least to me) that the sun was going to be a no-show, I started taking pictures of the people taking pictures of me/the crowd who were taking pictures of the non-sun. If you don’t get there about two hours before sunset, the narrow portion along the bridge with clear views gets taken up. So, I went to my usual spot on street level on 42nd Street–the best pictures are from when you stand in the middle of oncoming traffic anyway.

There along the median I met photographer Troy Hahn, who agreed with my assessment. He remembers 9 years when nobody knew about Manhattanhenge–he happened to come across it because he lived on 42nd and 1st and was curious why a guy (ONE GUY) was taking a picture. He snapped these fantastic shots yesterday.

The NYPD getting involved threatening citations for people on the street:

And final evidence of the sun being the newest celeb? Even after sunset on Tuesday, the entire bunch of “paparazzi” stayed there for another 15 minutes watching the oncoming storm, hoping that maybe the sun would still show. Until July!

See our previous Manhattanhenge photos here.  Get in touch with the author @untappedmich.