1968年，夏陽從巴黎到紐約定居創作，他在紐約二十年多年，剛好也是紐約蘇活世代(SOHO)興起的時候。1972年起，夏陽在紐約統艙畫室開始他的照相寫實階段(1972-1989)，進入藝術生涯的另一個巔峰。這幅創作於1973年的《行走的人#1》即是黑白單色系列─行走的人的第一張作品，深具關鍵性意義，也可以看出對他照相寫實最後單人色彩系列的創作原型。夏陽一方面思索如何延續「人的存在現象」的關注，將在巴黎時期的「毛毛人」的想法，結合照相寫實的手法，用八分之一的快門，捕捉街頭人們的日常生活，巧妙融合了現代西方的創作技巧與東方思維的生命哲學。

In 1968, HSIA Yan emigrate from Paris and settled down in New York to star his creations. The twenty years he spent in New York was just the rising time of New York SOHO. Since 1972 in New York he started his photorealism stage in Steerage Studio (1972-1989)  ,  Hsia Yang had reached his another peak of arts. This painting, "Pedestrian#1" of decisive meaning, was finished in 1973 and also the first work of black-and-white monochrome series Walking Men, through which we can also see the stereotype of his last monochrome portrait series. In these work, Hsia Yang tried to extend his concern for "the existence phenomena of human beings", by combining 1/8 second of shutter speed and photorealism skill and the idea of "fuzzy men" developed in his staying in Paris, to catch the moments of the life of the people on New York streets. In these works, he artificially and successfully melts modern western skills and orient life philosophy.