I discovered New York as I was passing through on the way to Haiti to do a report. I arrived during the day and was staggered in the taxi from the Brooklyn Bridge onwards. I got dropped off in mid-Manhattan to emphasize the impression. A kaleidoscope of perspectives, colours, ostentatious grandeur and concealed dilapidation. It was cold, I walked like all newcomers, my nose in the air, taking advantage of every pedestrian crossing to stop in the middle of the road and turn my head in 360° panoramic circles. In the lift which took me to my room on the 34 th floor of the old Carter Hotel, close to Time Square, my brain was again bombarded by the big apple, and everything was blurred as if subjected to visual persistence. When I opened my window blind, the building opposite reflected this image which magnificently combined the sensations of the day, and this impression of madness and of neo - gothic proliferation, rigidified in a ruthless and resolutely modern orthogonal grid.

**The artist: Jean-Marc Bernard**

Born in Monaco, Jean - Marc Bernard studied biologic oceanography. Impassioned by photography, he abandoned, in 1997, his scientific career and created in 2001 theBebop Jazz Galerie, a cultural space and an associative that mixes the arts and jazz. He also has worked with the designer, David Cohen on illustrations, creating a cohabi-tation of drawing and photography for the Grimaldi Forum of Monaco. The last three years will be consecrated to travel and reporting photography (Asia, Vietnam, Haiti) in a perpetual quest for new inspirations. His own photo agency ' Realis ' debuted in Monaco in 2005. In 1998, he took a series of photographs united under the title Une exploration du vieux Nice (An Exploration of Old Nice) then collaborated with the company Act’Libre (Nice) on a theatrical project ' La Mastication des Morts ' (The Mastication of the Dead) by P. Kerman. In 2002, he created with David Cohen the series ' Les Pousse Cailloux ' (The Grunts) and effected numerous expositions at Nice, Cannes…