NYC Storefronts James and Karla Murray
The authors’ landmark 2008 book, Store Front, was cited in Bookforum’s 20th Anniversary issue Dec/Jan 2015 as one of the “Exemplary Art Books From The Past Two Decades” and heralded as “One of the periods most successful New York books.”
The Murrays’ new book Store Front II: A History Preserved, the Disappearing Face of New York is the concluding part of a trilogy. It’s their second “daytime” book; the first was published in 2009 – with New York Nights (2012), chronicling Big Apple facades after dark, sandwiched in between. Another volume is unlikely, given the commercial quicksands undermining these businesses. There is a sense of urgency to the images: one-fifth of the stores in the current book have since closed; while two-thirds of the stores featured in the first book are no more.
Images and text via James and Karla Murray + via