According to architectural photographer Adam Friedberg, “It’s nice to see the sky sometimes. People with more money see more sky.” Apparently, the sky is the going commodity in this town. New Yorkers are attuned to the fickle space of the sky: the very presence of the sun is cause for occasion (cue Manhattanhenge), as well as duly noted in absentia (the New York Times has actually mapped every shadow in the city). Friedberg’s photographs of single-story buildings, including storefront churches, bodegas, community centers, and iconic delicatessens, document a rare composition in New York: a little building and a lot of sky. Unlike Friedberg’s commissioned work (a lot of buildings and a little sky), this project illustrates the presence of absence. Unlike most New York photography, these photos taken in the Lower East Side (LES) are empty of people, cars, and maximum Floor Area Ratio (FAR).
The resultant exhibition, Single-Story Project, is Ed Ruscha-meets-James Turrell: deadpan depictions of an obsessively framed sky. The negative space above these architec- turally …