Culture
Photographing a Decade of Change in New York City Storefronts
Proof that mom-and-pop shops have lost out to chain-stores and condos.
Over a decade ago, James and Karla Murray set out to photograph hundreds of mom-and-pop stores around New York City, an effort that led to the critically-acclaimed book Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York.
Now, the pair has taken their project to another level: they’ve started returning to the very storefronts they captured 10 years ago and shooting what's there now. The result is a growing series of powerful before-and-afters that illustrate how the city's streetscape has evolved, mostly in the direction of chain-stores, condos, and banks.