Citizens of the Bowery

By:  July 2, 2018 Categories: 

The Bowery is a lively neighbourhood in New York, thanks to a close-knit community. For a hotel that’s about citizens of the world, it made sense to highlight the citizens of the Bowery — and so KesselsKramer teamed up with photographer Christelle de Castro to honour the locals on the new 22-floor hotel: “Welcome to all citizens of the world and all citizens of the Bowery.”

 

“My family has been there since 1910. Place was a dump. It was a dump! My father, RIP, said the Bowery was a thermometer, a register of what went on in the economy. People came to the Bowery to buy. Everyone would buy something. If I didn’t sell them something, someone else would.” – Brian Faerman, cash register store owner.

 

“My friends and I once wanted to just randomly buy kids ice-cream just because it was a hot day. They thought we were rap stars.” – Richard Sharp (Rico), construction/rap act/graphic designer. Trying to be a superstar.

 

“I lived for many years on Bowery and Lafayette. The memory I like is walking with John Michael Basquiat. He was high and giving out $20 bills to the homeless… that day he handed out 50 bills. To see their faces was a delight.” – Amos Poe, filmmaker.

 

All portraits and interviews at https://www.citizenm.com/thebowery#

Latest

Forgotten patch of land

Forgotten patch of land

The hardest thing to get in Shanghai is silence and solitude, yet there’s this strip nearby our apartment that does provide these things — a patch of land that city developers had no use for. The first time I came here and entered, suddenly something felt weird until I realized it was the absence of […]
March 27, 2026
Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

Cobblestones and Lions in Longmen

I know I take too many photos, and I know I should remove some for brevity. But it feels to me that each of these views is worth capturing, as if to store it in a jar for storage. When I no longer live in China, I want to look back on these trips, to […]
February 18, 2026
Chinese New Year shopping in Majin

Chinese New Year shopping in Majin

We’re in Majin Village (马金镇) in Zhejiang, a day before the Chinese New Year starts. Everyone’s busy doing some final shopping or getting a haircut before the festival — and the weather reaching 22 °C in February helps bring people outside. Meat, spices, offerings, flowers, yoghurt, cookies, barbeque, trinkets, posters, vegetables, soap, new shoes — […]
February 17, 2026
Dutch Signs in Xixinan

Dutch Signs in Xixinan

It’s a foggy morning in Xixinan Village 西溪南村, a village near Huangshan. I’m tired of sleepless nights with a 5-month old baby, but I equally want to take this opportunity to take some photos, so I’m outside the door at 06:30. Watertowns like this are usually crowded during the day, but deserted this early. Xinanxi […]
February 16, 2026