Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Pray for Pills

A dilapated Lower East Side holdout amid the new construction for the rich and famous, the old Germania Bank building on Bowery is the home of one man, photographer Jay Maisel. He purchased the bank back in the 70s, when the Bowery was purely a destination for the down and out. Now, as the 'hood is being razed for shiny condos, Maisel lets his classic building rot. But it's still incredibly beautiful. The "Pray for Pills" grafitti in the last frame says it all...



9 comments:

shutter said...

The ground up shot is brilliant! Really shows the majesty of the building.

Brooks of Sheffield said...

Ken: Nice shots. When are you going to run the pictures of Frankie & Johnny's?

boweryboogie said...

i walk by that building every day before work, and just love all the graffiti.

Ken Mac said...

Thanks. Frankie & Johnnies in the AM! Welcome to BoweryBoogie, looking forward to your blogging..

Ming the Merciless said...

To respond to your question, I take my small point-and-shoot camera everywhere I go. So when I saw the ceiling from the second floor of the Borders Bookstore, I took out my camera and took half a dozen shots from different ventage points.

Fredrik said...

Like the story behind the pictures. A great post!

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Brad Trent said...

"...Maisel lets his classic building rot....."

Rot? What rot?!! I've been inside Jay's place many, many times and it is far from rotting! A little graffiti on some limestone blocks is hardly rot.

I moved to NYC in 1982 and one of the first places I visited was Jay's studio and the inside of that building is a pristine now as it was back then.

Rot...shit, I wish I was that rotten!

kamagra oral jelly said...

Great photos, I once passed over there in a cab, there are some really good buildings in that zone.