Stunning images of New York: from 7,500 feet above

"From a high altitude the streets looked like brain synapses"

(Vincent Laforet, fineart.laforetvisuals.com)

It’s hard to make a city of nearly nine million people look small – even harder when it’s one with as many skyscrapers as New York.

But that’s exactly what photographer Vincent Laforet achieved with these remarkable photos, which he took from a helicopter 7500 feet above Manhattan. If they had flown much higher they would have needed oxygen masks.

"I proposed shooting the city from an unusually high altitude so that we could capture the lines that are formed by the streets of New York at night," he writes. "It was an article about psychology and I've always thought that from a high altitude the streets looked like brain 'synapses' - at least to me."

He’s not wrong. His photos condense the sprawling, complex metropolis into a medley of light, colour and activity. The Empire State building rises into the night. Times Square is alive. The dark footprints of the World Trade Centre Memorial are silent and poignant. You can almost hear the distant buzz of traffic.

The photographer was on assignment for Men’s Health magazine when he captured the surreal images.

Image credits: Vincent Laforet, fineart.laforetvisuals.com