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Apartment 304, 398 Main Street

Mitch Epstein

Photography

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.
MEDIUM Chromogenic print
DATES 2001
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)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Black marker on the bottom verso: "ME Apartment 304, 398 Main Street 2001 AP 1/3".
COLLECTIONS Photography
ACCESSION NUMBER 2009.56.2
CREDIT LINE Gift of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
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). 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)
EDITION Edition: AP 1/3
IMAGE overall, CUR.2009.56.2_Yancy_Richardson_Gallery.jpg. Photograph courtesy of the artist and Yancey Richardson Gallery
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT © Mitch Epstein
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