Apartment 304, 398 Main Street
1 of 2
Object Label
This photograph is part of Mitch Epstein’s series Family Business, which traces the decline of Holyoke, Massachusetts, a once-prosperous industrial town, through the example of his own family’s waning fortunes. The series becomes a metaphor for many small American towns in flux, depopulated and with jobs in short supply.
Walls darkened by soot, Apartment 304, 398 Main Street shows a building belonging to Epstein’s father that was condemned after a fire. Yet the image also forms a stunning still life—an emblem of the fragility of life.
Caption
Mitch Epstein American, born 1952. Apartment 304, 398 Main Street, 2001. Chromogenic print, 48 7/8 × 61 9/16 in. (124.1 × 156.4 cm) frame: 50 × 62 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (127 × 159.4 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange, 2009.56.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Photograph courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery, CUR.2009.56.2_Yancy_Richardson_Gallery.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Apartment 304, 398 Main Street
Date
2001
Medium
Chromogenic print
Classification
Dimensions
48 7/8 × 61 9/16 in. (124.1 × 156.4 cm) frame: 50 × 62 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (127 × 159.4 × 6.4 cm)
Signatures
Black marker on the bottom verso: "ME Apartment 304, 398 Main Street 2001 AP 1/3".
Credit Line
Gift of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange
Accession Number
2009.56.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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