Passover Closures

The Yiddish Book Center will be closed on April 29 and 30 for Passover. There will be no public tours on Sunday, April 28.

Harvey Wang’s New York

Opening June 16, 2024, at the Yiddish Book Center

Where else but New York? Where would you still find a 97-year-old scrap-metal collector, a pillow maker, a mannequin maker, or someone who still digs graves with a shovel? But not for long. Harvey Wang’s beautiful and often poignant portraits show us men and women in vanishing jobs and professions. As machines and electronics take over, as gentrification or changes in customs occur, a way of life disappears. But Harvey Wang was able to document these lives before it was too late. The photographs and descriptions entertain and inform us all.

Harvey Wang’s New York opens in the Yiddish Book Center’s Brechner Gallery on Sunday, June 16 at 10:00 a.m. At 2:00 p.m., there will be a talkback with Wang, presented live at the Yiddish Book Center and streamed via Zoom. Space for the in-person event is limited and will be first-come, first-served; register below for the Zoom livestream.

Register for the livestream talkback

Photographs by Harvey Wang

Black and white photo of four men wearing ties and white shirts and one woman

Harvey Wang. Chock & Company, Orchard St. 1993.

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Black and white portrait of woman with short brown hair wearing matching jewelry set in front of curtain

 

Harvey Wang. Zypora Spaisman, Yiddish Actor. 

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Man wearing glasses, white undershirt, and suspenders poses with feather pillows in workshop

 

Harvey Wang. Itkowitz Feather Pillow Maker, Ludlow St.

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Man wearing kippah with long beard works at a typesetting machine, black and white photo.

Harvey Wang. Typesetter, The Forward. 1982.

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Hands work on typeset, black and white photograph

 

Harvey Wang. Hot Metal, Forward Composing Room. 1982.

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Five men wearing suits and ties pose in a suit warehouse room, black and white photo.

Harvey Wang. Louis Nathin, Bayard St, NYC. 1987.

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Woman wearing fur-trimmed coat walks out of NY store H. Eckstein & Sons, black and white photo.

 

Harvey Wang. H. Eckstein & Sons, Orchard St, NYC. 1993.

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Man wearing white coat sits at desk surrounded by gadgets, black and white photo.

 

Harvey Wang. Jack Betteil, TV Repairman, Queens, NY. 

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About the Artist

Headshot of Harvey Wang

Harvey Wang studied visual arts and anthropology at Purchase College, State University of New York. He has published six books of photography, including Harvey Wang’s New York (1990) and, with co-author David Isay, Flophouse: Life on the Bowery (2000) and Holding On: Dreamers, Visionaries,  Eccentrics and Other American Heroes (1995). His most recent book is From Darkroom to Daylight (2015). Wang has exhibited widely at museums, including the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the New-York Historical Society, and the Museum of the City of New York. His films have screened at festivals all over the world. His short film about the photographer Milton Rogovin won the prize for Best Documentary Short at the Tribeca Film Festival. He lives and works in New York City.

The Yiddish Book Center’s museum is open Sunday to Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Plan your visit to the Center here.

Made possible with support from the Brechner Family.