A quest to find his grandmother's birthplace led Richard Marc Sakols on a mission to capture his changing neighborhood on film.
Meet photographer Emon Hassan and explore the photographs in his pop-up exhibit for "I Dream of the Heights"!
Go inside the home of a jazz legend, learn how to make a subway map, spend an evening in a private art collection, and more!
A quest to find his grandmother's birthplace led Richard Marc Sakols on a mission to capture his changing neighborhood on film.
When Richard Marc Sakols upgraded his Kodak Brownie for a brand Pentax SLR in 1975, he knew exactly what he wanted to photograph. Living in New York City, he wasn't far from his maternal grandmother's birthplace on Henry Street on the Lower East Side, so he set out to find it. In the process of searching for his own family history, he discovered an even larger subject to photograph: the neighborhood's disappearing synagogues and other Jewish sites.
"While I was unable to find my grandmother’s address, I noticed the old synagogues," Sakols told Untapped New York. "Using the Jewish Communal Register of New York City(1917-1918), I made a list of some of the synagogues and their addresses in the Lower East Side." Traveling back and forth from the Lower East Side to the Map Room of the 42nd Street Library, he compiled a list of hundreds of entries.
Soon, Sakols realized the urgency of capturing these locations on film. "I was able to find only a couple," he said, "What struck me the most was that one address I located was just an empty lot surrounded by a chain link fence. Right then and there I knew I had to find any synagogues remaining before they, too, became empty lots."
"I walked the streets of the Lower East Side for the next several months, taking photos of the synagogues, businesses, restaurants, and, most importantly, the people," said Sakols.
Those photographs captured the neighborhood at a precarious time. "I could see and feel back then (in 1975) that the LES was losing its Jewish identity," Sakols reflected. The ephemeral nature of the photograph's subjects made them essential to preserve. Sakols donated his photographs to the Museum at Eldridge Street where they are now on display in the new exhibition, Lower East Side 1975: Portrait of a Changing Neighborhood.
"Several of my photos capture the Eldridge Street Synagogue many years before the renovation and creation of the Museum at Eldridge Street," said Sakols, "I could not have found a better place for my collection. The Museum at Eldridge Street did a miraculous job with my photos to create the exhibition."
Since Sakols captured the photographs nearly fifty years ago, the neighborhood has changed even more. "When I came in for the opening of my photo exhibition at the Museum at Eldridge Street (on December 4, 2024), the only vestiges of the Lower East Side that I recognized were the street names," Sakols shared.
Tuesday, January 21st at 5:30 PM ET: Free to members at the Insider tier or higher. Registration opens on January 7th at 12 PM ET
Get an up-close view of Sakols' photography on an exclusive after-hours tour at the Museum at Eldridge Street with Untapped New York Members on January 21st!
Lower East Side 1975: Portrait of a Changing Neighborhood is on view through through May 11, 2025.
Subscribe to our newsletter
