Photographer’s Genius Strategy to Avoid the Crowds on Manhattanhenge
Manhattanhenge is one of the biggest events in the New York photographic calendar, and it gets very, very crowded.
As photographer Kien Quan showed in a recent YouTube video, the throng of photographers hoping to get a shot of the rare alignment of Sun and city in 2025 was extremely busy. People wanting a good spot will need to get there very early.
Quan says tens of thousands of people stand in the middle of the street, holding smartphones and cameras. “It’s a flash mob of traffic violations, it’s the poop cruise for photographers who drop $200 on presets made by a chatbot… And I’m no better.”
Despite describing himself as “just another NPC,” Quan actually had a genius plan to beat the crowds by turning up with an enormous monopod. Balancing his camera body and telephoto lens 20 feet in the air — a setup he says cost him $5,000 — Quan was understandably nervous that something could go wrong.
After he had chosen his settings, Quan waited patiently for the Sun to set. But then, catastrophe struck.
“The next thing you know, clouds blanket the sky. People still push, cameras still click in full disbelief that everyone who came out was bamboozled by the weatherman,” says Quan, who spoke to another Manhattanhenge hunter who confirmed that it was “not worth it.”
Indeed, Quan showed the photo he got at the end of the video and when compared to what it could have looked like without cloud cover, it really wasn’t worth it — especially for the people who waited a staggering 12 hours.
What is Manhattanhenge?
Twice each year, the setting Sun aligns perfectly with Manhattan’s street grid, illuminating the north and south sides of every cross street on the island. The event’s name derives from Stonehenge in England, which has a similar event during the solstices.
But since Manhattan’s street grid is rotated 30 degrees east from geographic north, the days of alignment do not coincide with the equinoxes or solstices. Instead, Manhattanhenge occurs around May 30 and July 12 each year. While the precise dates can vary slightly, it is always near Memorial Day in May and around the MLB All-Star Break in July.
People often gather along the wider cross streets—like 14th, 34th, 42nd, and 57th—for the best views and photos.
While 2025 was a dud, it is likely that 2026 will see crowds of photographers once more lining up in the hope that the clouds stay away.
