Please join us for the opening of Adam Friedberg Single-Story Project
For more than a decade, the photographer Adam Friedberg has been documenting every single-story building in the East Village and the Lower East Side. A longtime East Village resident, he noticed how quickly these most humble structures were disappearing, a reflection of the rapid development and gentrification of the neighborhood. He completed the project this past fall, and over the course of the documentation many of the buildings have already disappeared or will soon be demolished.
In order to capture the buildings unobstructed, Friedberg mostly shot very early in the morning before cars and trucks obstructed the street-level views. In the process, he got to know many of the people who own or work in these buildings. In so doing, he came to understand that not only were the buildings being sold, but an entire primarily working-class economy (workshops, garages, fast food joints) and culture (storefront churches and community centers) was disappearing. Friedberg’s Single-Story Project forms an alternative geography of changing city and captures an urban erasure happening right before our eyes.
This exhibition will include 54 prints from this series and runs November 21, 2019 – February 29, 2020.
Photographer: Adam Friedberg
Curator: Alan G. Brake
Designer: Vanessa Lam
Single Story Project is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.