The Village Voice, Vince Aletti's selection for Best Photography Books of 2001

"In one of the most photographed cities in the world, Epstein manages to stake his own turf with a portfolio that is not only fresh but refreshing." —Flaunt

"Color photographs depict the commonplace, grittier sights of New York—crumbling buildings, littered streets and sidewalks, graffiti-covered walls, a multicultural populace—whereas the duotone photographs are portraits of friends and colleagues. There are views taken from the intimate distance of one apartment building to another, as well as views across the city. The stark, often compelling images convey the isolation, loneliness, and tensions endemic to complex, densely packed urban locations." —Library Journal

"Spaces and faces: This is the city we move through, the subject we move toward. Cinematographers with an exquisite eye work in the service of a director's vision, their glints of perception lost to narrative. Mitch Epstein, a photographer and cinematographer ("Mississippi Masala") captures his lustrous Manhattan in The City.... Epstein's complex yet offhanded city is a place where gleaming subway trains are glimpsed through rotting staircases and surveillance cameras stand sentry over a misty island, and in one emblematic shot, a thirtyish woman in the back of a taxi rests her head backward, eyes closed in an instant's stolen calm." —Filmmaker

"As complex and beautiful as Epstein's photographs of New York situations are, as intimate as his portraits might be, The City ultimately creates something surprising: the opportunity to ponder what photography can and cannot reveal about our public lives and our most private selves." —Marvin Heiferman, BOMB

"...manages the rare feat of delivering a fresh photographic take on New York City. [Epstein's] vivid full-color cityscapes and elegant black-and-white portraits winningly combine the straighforward, the abstract, and the surreal." —DoubleTake

"...a mediation on the meaning of public and private places in the city..." —Popular Photography

"The collage of both black-and-white and color photos flow together like a photographic Jazz rendition of 'Take the A Train.' Similar to the way Atget chronicled Paris...Epstein does the same in this wonderful gathering of stolen glimpses into the soft side of NYC... One man's view quickly enlarges to a universal vision of a city that dominates in size and scope, but remains at its heart the reflection of the people who fill apartments, subways offices, and parks." —City Beat

"Mitch Epstein's The City is a highly personal, purely visual narrative on New York City... More epic poem than urban documentary, The City seeks the myth and mystery in the banal and familiar." —Photo District News