Photographer Spends 50 Years Creatively Shooting the Chrysler Building

Aug 13, 2025

Matt Growcoot

A collage of three vibrant images featuring the Chrysler Building in New York City, shown with city lights, a close-up of its Art Deco crown, and as a silhouette against a sunset sky with light trails. — Mitchell Funk, Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

Perhaps no building in the world captures the early 20th-century art deco movement quite like the Chrysler Building, which has been an iconic fixture in the Manhattan skyline since 1930. Its grace and beauty have captivated photographers for decades. For one NYC shooter, the building has become his life’s work.

Mitchell Funk has been photographing the Chrysler Building for 50 years; his images are vibrant, eye-catching, and extremely creative.

“Mitchell Funk’s epic series of color photographs of the Chrysler Building embodies the spirit of visionaries Walter Chrysler and Architect William Van Alen,” reads a press release from the Robert Funk Fine Art Gallery. “Like their daring creation, the Chrysler Building, Funk’s images of it go above and beyond the ordinary to become avant-garde.”

Crowds of people walk along a sunlit street with the New York City skyline, including the Empire State Building, silhouetted against a vivid orange sunset. — Mitchell Funk, *Fantastical Landscapes Chrysler Building, Sci Fi Close Encounters New York City (1976)*. Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

A nighttime cityscape with bright, colorful lights streaked vertically, creating an abstract effect. A tall, illuminated building is centered, surrounded by blurred yellow and green lines of city lights. — Mitchell Funk, *Chrysler Building: Abstract Expressionist Photography, 1975*. Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

The illuminated Chrysler Building and a modern glass skyscraper stand against a vivid blue night sky, with a bright full moon visible in the upper left corner. — Mitchell Funk, *Chrysler Building Spire New York Art Deco Skyscraper, 2023.* Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

In an interview with ArtNet, Funk notes that a photographer shooting the New York skyline in 1974 would have always captured the Chrysler Building since there were few other skyscrapers obstructing the views. “Today, you have to work harder to find it among the clutter,” he says.

Funk has shot the soaring edifice in extreme light, snowstorms, blurs, multiple exposures, and candid close-ups of its iconic gleaming spire.

“A recurring theme in Funk’s photos is that the Chrysler Building, always emanating from the spire’s upward thrust, commands the viewer’s attention, even if it’s featured less prominently in an expansive skyline,” says the Robert Funk Fine Art Gallery. “The aesthetic energy emanating from the spire’s upward thrust reinforces the positive dialog between man and nature.”

Close-up view of the illuminated Art Deco crown and spire of the Chrysler Building in New York City, with geometric patterns glowing against a dramatic evening sky. — Mitchell Funk, *Chrysler Building Spire in Gold Light. Art Deco Architecture (2009).* Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

A single car drives on a curving road toward a city skyline at sunset, with tall buildings silhouetted against a yellow-green sky and reflective water visible on the left side of the road. — Mitchell Funk, *Wherever You Look You See The Chrysler Building: Williamsburg, 1974.* Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

The top of the Chrysler Building in New York City is shown against a vivid gradient sunset sky in shades of yellow, orange, purple, and pink. The building’s illuminated Art Deco spire is prominently featured. — Mitchell Funk, *Chrysler Building Crown at Night with Glowing Sky, 2001.* Courtesy of Robert Funk Fine Art, Miami.

Funk says that for the past 50 years, he has tried to interpret the Chrysler Building in the most creative ways possible.

“I tried to treat the Chrysler Building as more of a symbol than an object,” he tells ArtNet. “So, I shot it in ways that pushed the boundaries of color photography. I shot it in intense golden light, changing light, multiple exposure, multiple views in one image, colored filters, extreme angles, and precise, tightly balanced compositions.”

Mitchell Funk Photographs the Chrysler Building for 50 Years is showing until November 20, 2025, at Robert Funk Fine Art in Miami, Florida.