“I started to notice a lot of businesses closing stores going out of business. You know, Orchard Street nowadays, if you walk down Orchard Street, you will you will recognize it from what it looked like back in 1979 1980. And it I started to do some pictures of some of these old businesses. In my mind, these businesses connected me to my grandfather, who came to this country in 1918.”
In the latest episode of FAQ NYC Off Cycle, the namesake of the great portrait book, Harvey Wang’s New York, talks with host Harry Siegel about shooting the hold-outs in trades and businesses that were vanishing in the city in the 1980s and early 1990s, old New Yorks past and present, and much more ahead of a showing of some of his work for the book opening at the Yiddish Book Center on June 16.