Book Review: Life On the Lower East Side: Photographs By Rebecca Lepkoff, 1937-1950

Real people of real streets

Rebecca Lepkoff must have been an interesting person because how many other people would have taken photos like these? Cameras were for creating permanent records of family snaps, weddings and other uplifting occasions not the grit and grime of a working class neighborhood.

The map near the front of the book outlines the Lower East Side in 1939 and despite it not looking all that big an area the photos suggest plenty of commercial activity mingling with tenements. The photos capture life on the streets beautifully and give real sense of place. The book's photo section is based around streets and although individually most are not captioned several do have details about areas in the images.

The first forty-three pages have an essay by Peter Dans about living in the Lower East Side followed by Suzanne Wasserman's short biography of Ms Lepkoff. The book is nicely produced with the photos printed with a 200 screen on a reasonable matt art paper. I thought it slightly unfortunate that several photos are a bit too black and hide the some detail that is obviously there. Overall these content rich photos capture the people and seasons in one little corner of New York.

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