The Loft Law

Une enquête photographique auprès de plus de cinquante artistes new-yorkais bénéficiant toujours de la loi loft, promulguée en 1982, qui a permis de protéger et de stabiliser les loyers de milliers d'artistes qui vivaient illégalement dans des lofts à vocation commerciale et industrielle dans les quartiers de Soho, Tribeca et Bowery, après que l'industrie manufacturière a quitté Manhattan.

Auteur
Joshua Charow is a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in New York City. His projects aim to unveil hidden stories and subcultures around New York. He seeks to understand and explore the people at the center of these stories. As a teenager, Josh would escape his suburban New Jersey town and go to New York City in order to climb skyscrapers, bridges, and visit abandoned subway stations. This subculture introduced Josh to photography as he wanted to document these off-limits locations as he risked his life to visit them. Josh went on to study film and television at NYU Tisch. He currently works as a cinematographer and recently shot 'Untrapped', a feature documentary that premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival and reached #3 on the Amazon Prime Video US Movies chart. He also worked as a cinematographer on Hulu's new docuseries, 'apCaviar Presents'. In 2021, Josh made a short documentary for TIME Magazine about James Maroon, who cleans the 9/11 memorial reflecting pools on a nightly basis. This documentary became TIME's most viewed digital documentary of the year, with over four million views. His latest documentary is about Treb Heining, the man who created and still leads a team of people that disperse 3,000 pounds of confetti by hand onto Times Square during the New Years Eve Ball Drop. Josh self-published this film on social media and it has garnered 5 million views across all his platforms. Josh has worked with various publications and brands, including TIME, Canon, Gucci, New York Fashion Week, Microsoft, V Magazine, Old Navy, Red Bull, NASDAQ, and more.

Texte du rabat

'A new book is opening the curtains to the last creative residential sanctuaries left in the city.' '... captures a fading way of life' - ArtNet

Charow spent the past two years creating his first photography book about artists living under the protection of The Loft Law. The law, enacted in 1982, granted protection and rent control to thousands of artists who were living illegally in commercial and manufacturing zoned lofts in neighborhoods like Soho, Tribeca, and the Bowery after the manufacturing industry left New York. Two years ago he found a map of the remaining protected buildings, rang hundreds of doorbells, and photographed and interviewed over 50 artists who are still living in these incredible lofts to this day. As New York faces an unprecedented amount of empty commercial space, this is perfect timing for this incredible untold story.