Charles Pratt (1926-1976) was raised in New York City and Maine, graduating from Yale University in 1948. While working as a stage manager in Manhattan, Pratt studied photography with Lisette Model, Sid Grossman and David Vestal. He spent a great deal of time exploring New York City and its surrounding areas, fascinated by the boundaries where the natural world met the industrial. These fringe areas, or "edges" were important to him: rivers, parks along the waterfront, highways, embankments, empty lots, airports, rooftops, and the marshes in New Jersey. He questioned whether these edges would eventually disappear, resulting in a vast megalopolis joining Washington, New York City, and Boston. He wrote about the "scarcity of sky" in the city as opposed to the countryside, and how this affects the perception of self and scale for city dwellers. Pratt stated "I find myself drawn to [the] edges with a sense of urgency, knowing that they may be gone tomorrow — not just extended but really, finally gone." Charles Pratt died in 1976. Nazraeli Press published The Edge of the City: Words and Photographs by Charles Pratt after his death, collecting the unfinished series which was his life's work.