Created between 1995 and 2013, the analogue photographs of synagogues on the Lower East Side of Manhattan which comprise the series "Synagogues, New York City" are void of a human presence or horizon line. Interspersed between the façades of secular buildings, the consistent use of central perspective makes these images look static and solid like sculptures, as though carved from a bygone world.
The artist, who has been documenting the transformation of the borough since the 1990s, refers unromantically to the history of urban architecture, which is perpetually challenged by the gentrification of New York City. The photographer documents the synagogues as converted objects, as the concrete and brick façades are given second lives in new guises as a Buddhist temple, an Episscopal church or other restored houses of worship in a sense of artificial existence. The oppositional aesthetic of bittersweet nostalgia against the contrast of change is intensified by the anachronistic 5x7 crop created by the medium format camera used by the artist.
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Synagogue for the Arts, NY / Congregation Shaare Zedek, Manhattan/NYC,
2013
