New York at Home: Photos from <i>America at Home</i>
16 photos
<p>Toward Mecca. Faithful Muslims break their Ramadan fast with the evening Maghrib prayer and meal at Makky Masjid, a small mosque in the lobby of an apartment building in Morrisania, a diverse neighborhood of West Africans and Dominicans in the South Bronx. Constrained by the limited space, the overflow crowd of Ramadan observers spills out onto the sidewalk with their prayer mats. </p>
<p>Seeing through the clutter. Though his landlord has tried to evict him many times over the past 40 years, Steve Fybish, 70, has endured in his Upper West Side apartment. A weather historian and substitute teacher, Fybish passes his time playing the violin and thinking of his late wife, whose ashes lie in an urn somewhere amid the books and papers. Each year the National Association of Professional Organizers receives an estimated 10,000 calls from clutter victims desperate for someone to help them create order out of chaos. </p>
<p>Rainy day reminder. Fybish maintains a meticulous daily weather log to help track the passage of time. Previous volumes are buried deep within the clutter, which leaves room for little more than a bed and a place to play his violin. Still, Fybish claims that the room is much neater now, after a general cleanup. </p>
<p>Surf doctor. Since 1983, Jim Spencer, a medical doctor, has lived on his 35-foot Sea Rover in a small community of full-time residents at the 79th Street Boat Basin on the Upper West Side. Whenever the weather allows it, Spencer heads out onto the Hudson River to windsurf. Many of the homes at the basin are as eccentric (and unseaworthy) as their owners, and the city has given them two years to shape up or ship out. </p>
<p>Practice, practice. Entertainment photographer Editta Sherman stands in the pure northern light of her towering apartment/studio above Carnegie Hall. She is one of a group of longtime tenants, most of them artists, who have been fighting a long, and probably doomed, battle to keep their leases. Past tenants of these studios include Isadora Duncan, Marlon Brando, and Leonard Bernstein. </p>
<p>Mobile home. Peabody 'Cowboy' Dennis, a Vietnam veteran who has lived on the streets for more than four years, smokes a pipe before going to sleep. Each night he meticulously rebuilds his shelter--then, in the morning, disassembles it to meet city regulations. A growing number of cities have instituted similar laws, aimed at preventing permanent homeless camps while recognizing the need for nightly shelter. The homeless population in America is estimated at more than 3 million, half of them men. </p>
<p>Rita McMahon does volunteer work for Animal General Hospital, a bird rescue organization, helping to nurse injured birds back to health. Before releasing baby birds back into the wild, she uses her Upper West Side apartment as a training ground to teach them to fly.</p>
<p>Nice deal. Michael Cohen and a friend play a game of poker on a communal deck of the Orion building 30 stories above Times Square. The Orion, a condo community, soars 60 stories above 42nd Street, offering residents everything from a full-time concierge to a free morning breakfast. </p>
<p>The urban jungle. Lenny Weiner, a retired steamfitter, reads quietly in his wildly decorated Peter Cooper Village apartment. What had been a typical downtown space has been transformed by Weiner into a kaleidoscope of chandeliers, living vines, murals, and rhinestone-studded walls. </p>
<p>Window to a bigger world. The Lam family crowds two Chinese-born parents and three American-born children into two tiny rooms. One serves as a combination kitchen, bathroom, living room, and dining room; the other holds four beds jammed together. Here, under the gaze of their parents wedding photo, the Lam children watch TV. </p>
<p>Tags and grills. This eye-catching loft building in the South Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn is called the Kibbutz because of its Hasidic owner, who runs a shop on the first floor, a school for Hasidic girls next door, and possibly a matzoh factory in the basement. But the mix of tenants is far more eclectic than it sounds: at one time 30 photographers lived in the building, drawn by the space, the affordable rent, and the spectacular views from the roof. </p>
<p>The Pereyra family used to live in a basement apartment with no windows, but they recently moved to a ninth-floor apartment with a spectacular view. Even the dog loves it. </p>
<p>Honey be mine. Beekeeper David Graves manages one of the most popular stalls at a weekend open-air market on New York City's Upper West Side. The big attraction? Fresh honey from 15 beehives he has placed around the city. "Bees" Graves explains, "fly about two to three miles each day in search of nectar and then return to the hive. In New York they favor the nectar of gingko, sumac, and linden trees, which give the honey a unique flavor." The most honey Graves has ever extracted in a single season was 140 pounds, from a hive on the Upper West Side. </p>
<p>The buzz of city life. Graves tends to his hive 20 stories above Manhattan's East 15th Street. For the last seven years, Graves has made his home at hotels three nights per week to harvest the numerous hives he has placed atop buildings around the city. </p>
<p>Not always glamorous. Elite model Helen George gets ready for a new day in the Manhattan townhouse she shares with seven other aspiring young models. Even though the accommodations are cramped, she has no complaints. With a Japan gig in January and an upcoming Macy's holiday billboard, life is pretty good for a girl who grew up in a small fishing town in southern England.</p>
<p>Amber Freda, Campbell Kidd, and Nathan Koach chill after work in Koach's rooftop garden overlooking Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. With young professionals looking for bargains and proximity to work, urban gentrification is a common feature of many major American cities. </p>