42.9

For a guy from the humble Midwest, New York City can be a tad overwhelming. Walls of masonry and glass form perpetual blinders in every direction. Without a compass, bearings aren’t easy to come by when those walls start to close in. Never fear however! There certainly are locations that will make the most lost soul feel right at home. Or at least right home in the classic New York sense of the phrase. I found that family room comfort zone truly does exist at Rockefeller Center.

At Rockefeller, during the month of December, everyone has something in common – Christmas. Swarming with curious Midwesterners, wide-eyed Europeans with surgically implanted smiles, Asians incapable of detaching cameras from eye-sockets, local New Yorkers milling about with that certain air of pride as if the entire city block were an extension of their own living room, Rockefeller plaza, the home of NBC (love it or hate it) and masterpiece Deco architecture really is the heart of the city. In New York where home is rarely more than a 600 square foot room with a tub in the kitchen the Rockefeller Christmas tree and festivities are truly something to be proud of and for millions of New Yorkers to claim as their own.

I don’t know which group this intimate couple finds themselves but capturing their tender moment was an unexpected surprise to me. An open shutter even in the busiest of intersections can reveal the warmest of human affection.