In 1985 Engel began creating large color panoramas of people on the streets of New York City. Panoramas are practically as old as the history of photography, and traditionally they are done on tripods with distant subject matter. However, Engel’s panoramas are to a degree contradictory, as they are all done without a tripod on the street at extremely short differences. He used 35mm and 2 ¼ cameras that he designed, and put together to get a wider view. Among Engel’s subjects were Times Square, 42nd Street, (during its transformation), street fairs, performers and Chinatown.
