Perhaps more than any city in the world, New York is a street town. Weaving through the towering block of concrete, brick, and glass are miles and miles of local businesses announcing their presence to the world. In a city that thrives on reinvention, these Mom & Pop shops become fixtures in the community.
Imagine Coney Island without Astroland, the Bowery without CBGB, Greenwich Village without Stonewall Inn; it simply cannot be done. These businesses are intrinsically woven into the character and history of the neighborhoods they serve, transforming the experience of living in a metropolis of eight million into an expansive network of mini-villages and ethnic enclaves.
In classic New York fashion, they understand the importance of standing out among the crowd, announcing their names with style and flair second to none. Whether you’re walking down the street, cruising a car, or riding a bike, their signage catches the eye, adding a little razzle-dazzle to the landscape of daily life.
Over the past two decades husband-and-wife photography team James and Karla Murray have been faithfully recording their dazzling facades as a means to celebrate and support neighborhood institutions have become cultural and historical landmarks — whether famous or not.
A Pedestrian’s Paradise
From Harlem’s legendary Lenox Lounge to Trash & Vaudeville, a punk boutique on St. Mark’s Place, James and Karla Murray have sought out local haunts that form the heart and soul of New York. With the passage of time and the radical shifts in real estate, many of the locations they photographed have since closed, many at the start of the pandemic.
But far from simply chronicling a disappearing city, the Murrays have actively been working with shop owners to use their photography to support and promote the city’s legendary independent businesses. Balthazar, Beauty Bar, 188 Cuchifritos, Village Cigars: like true New Yorkers, these veritable institutions persevere against the odds, committed in their purpose to serve.
Now in the new book, Store Front NYC: Photographs of the City’s Independent Shops, Past and Present, they bring together a collection of 200 classic and never-before-seen photographs made since 2001 that document the changing face of a city in the same vein as legendary photographers Eugène Atget, Berenice Abbott, and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
Organized by borough, Store Front NYC is the perfect blend of photography monograph and travel book. The Murrays understand New York is a pedestrian’s paradise, with its greatest pleasures rooted in feelings of discovery, whether serendipitous or intentional.
Their photographs also act as tributes to the magic of everyday life, allowing us to see things that may have become prosaic with fresh eyes — particularly in light of the rapid changes brought on by widespread gentrification.
“The Papaya Kings, pizza places, cafés, and restaurant fronts that had been just background material for it all I now find charming and distinctly original,” Blondie cofounder and photographer Chris Stein writes in the foreword.
“I’m all for plowing ahead, but I find it fascinating that some old location that I might have ignored for its normalcy I now see as vital, and representative of a totally fresh antique context,” he continues. “Photography is time travel, and the past surrounds us even as it’s absorbed. Great that somebody is keeping track.”
Store Front NYC: Photographs of the City’s Independent Shops, Past and Present is published by Prestel, $39.99
