It’s hard to resist hyperbole when describing photographer Jeffrey Milstein’s latest book , LA NY: Aerial Photographs of Los Angeles and New York , a visual tour de force of the two cities as seen from above. The book, released today, holds a special importance for Milstein, who was born in New York and lives in Los Angeles.

“I have always been fascinated with the view from an aircraft. It is one of the reasons I got my pilot's license at the age of 17,” says Milstein. “You not only see things in a different way, but you can discover things not possible to see on the ground.”

The book’s 120 large-format photographs, snapped from high-resolution cameras mounted on helicopters with a stabilizing gyro, offer a powerful, fresh way to compare the two metropolises.

“For example, the large housing development known as Park La Brea in L.A. has a geometric site plan that includes circles and squares and spirals that are based on Masonic geometry, because the developers were Masons,” comments Milstein. “From the air it is clearly revealed, but on the ground you have no idea it looks that way. To some extent, [New York’s] Stuyvesant Town has similarities. It was built by the same developers.”

But perhaps the most thrilling juxtapositions come where the two cities are the most different. Where Los Angeles is low-slung and sprawling, New York is dense, ordered, and tall.

“Los Angeles is a low, spread-out city except for a small downtown which is currently going through a renaissance,” says Milstein . “New York is about the vibrancy of the city. The buildings of midtown and Times Square are the temples to commerce with their spires reaching for the sky. From above at night, the lit-up buildings dazzle. Architects are creating the next new buildings that will defy convention as the city skyline keeps growing and changing.”

New York: The 9/11 Memorial and One World Trade Center.

Los Angeles: Beverly Hills.

New York: Columbus Circle.

Los Angeles: Universal Studios, Hollywood.

New York: 432 Park Avenue.

Los Angeles: The beach.

New York: Stuyvesant Town.

Los Angeles: Park La Brea.

Anaheim, California: Disneyland.