Hutton's most impressive work ... the filmmaker's style takeson an assertive edge that marks his maturity. The landscape has a majesty thatserves to reflect the meditative interiority of the artist independent of any humanpresence. ... New York is framed in the dark nights of a lonely winter. The pulse ofstreet life finds no role in NEW YORK PORTRAIT; the dense metropolitan populationand imposing urban locale disappear before Hutton's concern for the primal force ofa universal presence. With an eye for the ordinary, Hutton can point his cameratoward the clouds finding flocks of birds, or turn back to the simple objects aroundhis apartment struggling to elicit a personal intuition from their presence. ...Hutton finds a harmonious, if at times melancholy, rapport with the natural elementsthat retain their grace in spite of the city's artificial environment. The citybecomes a ghost town that the filmmaker transforms into a vehicle reflecting hispersonal mood. The last shot looks across a Brooklyn beach toward the skyline ofConey Island's amusement park .The quiet park evokes the once frantic city smotheredby winter. Nature continues its eternal cycles impervious to the presence of man,the aspirations of society, or the decay of the metropolis.