LONDON.- The Wapping Project Bankside opens 2011 with Munich based German photographer, Christopher Thomas. New York Sleeps: Photographs by Christopher Thomas, 2001-2009 (Prestel 2009, 2nd ed 2010) is a series of black and white images shot using a custom-made large format camera, Polaroid film and long exposures. The resulting exhibition of 30 large-scale cityscapes, devoid of people, offers an elusive glimpse of 19th century tranquility while hinting at a cryptic, apocalyptic ending. From views of a snow bound Guggenheim to a boarded up Katz Deli, Thomas’ New York looks abandoned. Are these architectural studies? Not quite. Does the beauty of each image satisfy the viewer? Not really. What first appears as neo-romantic imagery, beauty for beauty’s sake, is made richer and darker by the lack of human interaction. This is not the rowdy, no