Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York

Within the pages of STORE FRONT, the reader may explore entire blocks that have not changed much in the past century, engaging in startling encounter with contemporary New York. Details of an architectural and cultural heritage that is fast disappearing such as signage, architectural adornment and window displays are presented in context, as they exist on the street, all in amazing detail.

"New York's storefronts constitute the city's vernacular architecture, shaping the look and feel of the five boroughs no less than more celebrated elements of the skyline. These unfussy, elegant, and richly colored photographs of butcher shops, bakeries, fabric wholesalers, cuchifritos stands, stationery and sporting-goods stores, laundromats, groceries, and dive bars give connoisseurs of signage, folk typography, and ambient erosion much to pour over. Shops that opened in the 1970s now look as ancient as those dating back to the twenties. The tone is elegiac as much as it is celebratory; interviews with shop owners make it clear how close to extinction many of them stand, and the photographers report that nearly a third of these businesses have gone under in the time that it took to make the book."

- The New Yorker Copyright (c)2008

"Overly affectionate accounts of days gone by make up an entire genre in America these days, part of the general shift in the past generation from future-focused optimism to nostalgia-laced longing.

You see it in paeans to roadside America, to lost highways and long-forgotten attractions. Most of it is unabashed ode. Rarely, though, do you see an account that zooms in on a chunk of the American landscape what was, what is and the hint of what may be and manages to be both lyrical and documentarian, elegant and decidedly anthropological.

That's exactly what awaits when you crack open "Store Front," which at nearly 7 pounds is a mighty volume that functions as a visual catalog of New York City retail architecture and all the stories behind it. This is an appealing, unmatched tale of individualism and the tapestry of entrepreneurial zeal, all wrapped up in brick, mortar and colorful signage."

-The Associated Press

"The Murrays' photographs, however, do not romanticize these not very picturesque locales. The images are bright and crisp, though most of what the authors photographed was dingy and covered with graffiti; quite a few fronts and signs were falling apart or grungy to begin with. Yet it is in this state of decay that the stores hold a curious fascination indeed, a raw beauty for anyone concerned with vernacular design. I was particularly taken with the Lower East Side remnants that are slowly being squeezed out by hip restaurants and shops. Zelig Blumenthal s religious articles store, on Essex Street, appears not to have changed since my grandparents lived nearby. The Hebrew lettering on the window is as clean as it was back then. Meanwhile, at Rabbi M. Eisenbach's shop, the painted signs seem to be fading. Beny s Authorized Sales and Service, which sells fine jewelry, electric shavers, lighters, pens, is not just a throwback; it also exhibits a totally alien aesthetic compared with that of most stores today.

Store Front is not mired in nostalgia....The book is also a study of urban migration."

- Steven Heller for The New York Times Book Review

James and Karla Murray are husband-and-wife architectural and interior photographers and multi-media artists based in New York City. For the past 25 years they have focused their lens on the streetscape through portraits of storefronts and shop owners and have strived to capture moments of city life that often go undocumented but capture the spirit, energy and cultural diversity of individual neighborhoods. They made it their mission to thoroughly document unique 'mom-and-pop' stores when they began to notice the alarming rate at which the shops were disappearing in their beloved NYC. Their critically acclaimed books include Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, New York Nights, Store Front II- A History Preserved and Broken Windows-Graffiti NYC. New York Nights was the winner of the prestigious New York Society Library's 2012 New York City Book Award. James and Karla Murray's work has been exhibited widely in major institutions and galleries, including solo exhibitions at the Brooklyn Historical Society, Clic Gallery in New York City, The Storefront Project Gallery in New York City, and Fotogalerie Im Blauen Haus in Munich, Germany and group shows at the New-York Historical Society, Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, CA and Brooklyn Historical Society. Their photographs are included in the permanent collections of major institutions, including the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, the New York Public Library, and NYU Langone Medical Center. Their photography has appeared in numerous publications including the New York Times, London Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Daily News, New York Magazine and The New Yorker. James and Karla were awarded the 2015 Regina Kellerman Award by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) in recognition of their significant contribution to the quality of life in Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo. In both 2019, 2018 and 2017, Karla and James were awarded a Creative Engagement Manhattan Arts Grant by the New York State Council on the Arts and administered by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Karla and James received the prestigious Art in the Parks: UNIQLO Park Expressions Grant in 2018 for their public art installation, Mom-and-Pops of the L.E.S. (Lower East Side). James and Karla live in the East Village of Manhattan with their rescue dog Hudson.

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