((PKG)) APARTMENT PHOTOGRAPHER
((TRT: 5:26))
((Topic Banner: Capturing Homes))
((VOA Russian))
((Reporter: Anna Nelson))
((Camera: Maxim Avloshenko))
((Editor: Natalia Latukhina))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main character: 1 female))
((NATS))
((Sally Davies, Photographer))
I had very recently placed
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
a big amount of photos
((Courtesy ends))
at the Museum of the City of New York on my outside,
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
my street photography. I thought that was it.
((Courtesy ends))
I'm good now. And then one night, I woke up at four o’clock
in the morning.
Oh my God! In a hundred years, people will go to the
museum and they will see all those photos of “Whoa, look
what New York used to look like”, and
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
no idea who lived inside those buildings. And I thought,
“That's my next project.
((Courtesy ends))
I'm going to go back. I'm going to go into people's homes
and I'm going to take their pictures with all their stuff.” And I
started in
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
about three days.
((Courtesy ends))
I think people enjoy looking in other people's homes. I do.
And in New York, people tend to be not quite so open about
their homes. You know, you can't go by and look in people's
windows. You think you're nutty? You can look in there and
see somebody who's nuttier. You think you have a lot of
stuff? You can look in there, see somebody who has more
stuff than you do.
So, I tried with a few friends first. And I thought, “I'll go on
social media. I'll put a call out anybody who wants to, you
know, to do this.” But I never had to. Everybody had another
friend, had another friend. And before you know it, people
were sending me an email with a picture of their house,
saying, “Could you please put me in the book?” you know.
I got my thing, my bag, and I would go to people's house,
and they would open the door and I'd be like, “Hi, let me
look.” And I would walk in their house and just quickly. Some
places, I was only for five minutes or 10 minutes.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
There's a woman in
((Courtesy ends))
the book named Marina.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
And she answered the door in this 50s Dior, vintage beautiful
gown. And we walked into the living room, she had painted
the whole living room pink to match the gown. That's why we
have that beautiful photo of her.
((Courtesy ends))
Also, the woman, Suzanne Mallouk,
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
in the book. She's the woman that was Jean-Michel
Basquiat's girlfriend many years ago. She answered the door
like that with the turban and this beautiful thing and it made
the book very varied, right? I mean, some people were like
that
((Courtesy ends))
and other people were just like me. Nothing. This is how I
am.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
I shot about 125 people.
((Courtesy ends))
Bun came with me to every photograph and that was good.
Maybe at the beginning, I was afraid, a little nervous. And I
had my friends were going, “Are you out of your mind?
You're going by yourself to this.”, you know. But after a few, I
just wasn't nervous anymore. I thought, “This is not going to
go bad.” The fellow that has the coffins, did you see that
photo?
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
He is legally blind and he was on the sixth-floor walk-up,
really nice person. He has two coffins in his living room. One
adult size that’s all tricked out so when you open it, it
becomes a couch. Over here is a baby coffin, and when you
open it, it's a liquor cabinet.
((Courtesy ends))
When I moved here in ’83, this neighborhood was all
tenements.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
The first apartment I ever had, had a bathtub in the kitchen.
And when you tell people that, they're like, “What?” You’re
like, “Yeah, that was a thing.” And they were all exactly the
same. It was the tenement buildings, right?
((Courtesy ends))
I discovered that you can never tell, ever, what is inside from
what is outside. I would, you know, meet periodically famous
people or people that were very wealthy. And, you know,
you'd go to their place and the outside of the building would
always, not always, but often be a complete dump.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
Then, you'd walk into these, like fantastic apartments.
They don't want their building to look nice, especially in
those days. You’d be robbed. You’d have people breaking
in, you know. So, that was just fine.
((Courtesy ends))
One lady in the book, she had tiny, little room. Like her and
her husband got this little
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
apartment, Upper West Side, years ago, when they first
were starting up. And over the years, they had some children
and they needed more space. They looked around. They
couldn't get a bigger apartment. So, apartment came up for
rent in their building. They took it and they raised their family
in two apartments. So, the kids spent their whole life in their
pajamas going up and down. Like, they slept up and then
living room was downstairs. How funny is that?
This has all happened so quickly that we haven't really
caught up. And I haven't, mentally, with the fact that we're
already doing another printing and the first printing just came
out three days ago and it sold out. I don't even know what to
think about that.
So, the timing was really like God arranged this, I think. It
would not have been made. Because people will not, would
never let me back in their house now. Not the way things still
are. I don't know the word coincidence. It might appear to be
a coincidence of the timing of all of this. I don't believe in
coincidences. I don't know that things will ever be what they
were before this. The project is sort of a love letter to what
now is a time gone past.
((NATS/MUSIC))
((TRT: 5:26))
((Topic Banner: Capturing Homes))
((VOA Russian))
((Reporter: Anna Nelson))
((Camera: Maxim Avloshenko))
((Editor: Natalia Latukhina))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: New York City, New York))
((Main character: 1 female))
((NATS))
((Sally Davies, Photographer))
I had very recently placed
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
a big amount of photos
((Courtesy ends))
at the Museum of the City of New York on my outside,
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
my street photography. I thought that was it.
((Courtesy ends))
I'm good now. And then one night, I woke up at four o’clock
in the morning.
Oh my God! In a hundred years, people will go to the
museum and they will see all those photos of “Whoa, look
what New York used to look like”, and
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
no idea who lived inside those buildings. And I thought,
“That's my next project.
((Courtesy ends))
I'm going to go back. I'm going to go into people's homes
and I'm going to take their pictures with all their stuff.” And I
started in
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
about three days.
((Courtesy ends))
I think people enjoy looking in other people's homes. I do.
And in New York, people tend to be not quite so open about
their homes. You know, you can't go by and look in people's
windows. You think you're nutty? You can look in there and
see somebody who's nuttier. You think you have a lot of
stuff? You can look in there, see somebody who has more
stuff than you do.
So, I tried with a few friends first. And I thought, “I'll go on
social media. I'll put a call out anybody who wants to, you
know, to do this.” But I never had to. Everybody had another
friend, had another friend. And before you know it, people
were sending me an email with a picture of their house,
saying, “Could you please put me in the book?” you know.
I got my thing, my bag, and I would go to people's house,
and they would open the door and I'd be like, “Hi, let me
look.” And I would walk in their house and just quickly. Some
places, I was only for five minutes or 10 minutes.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
There's a woman in
((Courtesy ends))
the book named Marina.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
And she answered the door in this 50s Dior, vintage beautiful
gown. And we walked into the living room, she had painted
the whole living room pink to match the gown. That's why we
have that beautiful photo of her.
((Courtesy ends))
Also, the woman, Suzanne Mallouk,
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
in the book. She's the woman that was Jean-Michel
Basquiat's girlfriend many years ago. She answered the door
like that with the turban and this beautiful thing and it made
the book very varied, right? I mean, some people were like
that
((Courtesy ends))
and other people were just like me. Nothing. This is how I
am.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
I shot about 125 people.
((Courtesy ends))
Bun came with me to every photograph and that was good.
Maybe at the beginning, I was afraid, a little nervous. And I
had my friends were going, “Are you out of your mind?
You're going by yourself to this.”, you know. But after a few, I
just wasn't nervous anymore. I thought, “This is not going to
go bad.” The fellow that has the coffins, did you see that
photo?
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
He is legally blind and he was on the sixth-floor walk-up,
really nice person. He has two coffins in his living room. One
adult size that’s all tricked out so when you open it, it
becomes a couch. Over here is a baby coffin, and when you
open it, it's a liquor cabinet.
((Courtesy ends))
When I moved here in ’83, this neighborhood was all
tenements.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
The first apartment I ever had, had a bathtub in the kitchen.
And when you tell people that, they're like, “What?” You’re
like, “Yeah, that was a thing.” And they were all exactly the
same. It was the tenement buildings, right?
((Courtesy ends))
I discovered that you can never tell, ever, what is inside from
what is outside. I would, you know, meet periodically famous
people or people that were very wealthy. And, you know,
you'd go to their place and the outside of the building would
always, not always, but often be a complete dump.
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
Then, you'd walk into these, like fantastic apartments.
They don't want their building to look nice, especially in
those days. You’d be robbed. You’d have people breaking
in, you know. So, that was just fine.
((Courtesy ends))
One lady in the book, she had tiny, little room. Like her and
her husband got this little
((Courtesy: Sally Davies))
apartment, Upper West Side, years ago, when they first
were starting up. And over the years, they had some children
and they needed more space. They looked around. They
couldn't get a bigger apartment. So, apartment came up for
rent in their building. They took it and they raised their family
in two apartments. So, the kids spent their whole life in their
pajamas going up and down. Like, they slept up and then
living room was downstairs. How funny is that?
This has all happened so quickly that we haven't really
caught up. And I haven't, mentally, with the fact that we're
already doing another printing and the first printing just came
out three days ago and it sold out. I don't even know what to
think about that.
So, the timing was really like God arranged this, I think. It
would not have been made. Because people will not, would
never let me back in their house now. Not the way things still
are. I don't know the word coincidence. It might appear to be
a coincidence of the timing of all of this. I don't believe in
coincidences. I don't know that things will ever be what they
were before this. The project is sort of a love letter to what
now is a time gone past.
((NATS/MUSIC))
