View of New York from Staten Island on the Ferry

"The main advance as Estes moved through the eighties has been the expansion of his imagery into amazing panoramic urban views, seeming to encompass entire cities...in these works, and in his subway scenes and high panoramas, he invented a way to paint what appears to be two entirely different points of focus--the close-up and the distant panorama--as part of one canvas. Neither the eye nor the camera can capture images in this way, but Estes convinces us that it can be done" (L. Meisel, Photorealism Since 1980, New York, 1993, p. 179).