I came to Chinatown with a camera and no plan, which is usually the only plan that works here. The street in front of me opened like a narrow canyon of brick and signage, the buildings tall enough to squeeze the sky into a pale strip overhead. Fire escapes crisscrossed the façades in black metal diagonals, ladders folded up like punctuation marks, while strings of bare bulbs stretched from side to side, unlit for now but already sketching the night that would come later.