“Skid Row,” also known as Central City East, is a district in Los Angeles that’s home to a large concentration of homeless people. Over time the name has come to represent a poor district of any city or town where there are inexpensive hotels and bars, and where the unhoused often congregate. There are some infamous ones, notably the Bowery in Manhattan, which is now in the throes of gentrification.
Charles Traub, chairman of SVA’s MFA program in Photo, Video and Related Media, and a prolific documentary photographer with 17 books to his credit, aimed his lens at the inhabitants of the skid rows in uptown Chicago and downtown New York with an eye to bringing humanity to social invisibility.
The recently published Skid Row (Lazy Dog), featuring photos by Traub and text by Tom Huhn, is a representational record of how poverty continues to impact the lives of individuals caught in its grip.
An exhibit of the work opens on Sept. 21 at SVA’s project space.
