In 1980 I photographed the Lower East Side of Manhattan with a 4x5 view camera. It was the neighborhood’s darkest, but most creative moment. While buildings crumbled and burned, artists came to explore and express the edgy quality of the place. After moving on to other projects, and living abroad for a dozen years, I re-photographed the neighborhood between 2005 and 2010. Time and Space on the Lower East Side, is a photo essay that looks backward and forward, that posits the idea that places are not simply “then and now,” but exist in a continuum of decay and rebirth.
