In a time in which metropolises are overpopulated and rents are constantly on the rise, vital space for human beings is reducing, becoming smaller and more suffocating year after year. Facing up to this scenario, the inhabitation of old industrial spaces is becoming a social phenomenon.
Behind the Door (2012 – present) is a long-term documentary photography project set in a converted warehouse at 83 Meserole Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York City. Built in 1920 when Williamsburg was a hub for manufacturing, and formerly a sewing factory, the building where the photographic project takes place is a large brown, brick box that stands four stories high. It made cosmetics, utility bags of cloth, cot, rayon and vinyl for nearly sixty years before closing in the late 1990s.
Williamsburg has gentrified over the past 30 years and is now a desirable residential neighborhood. The former sewing factory, like most of the buildings in the area, has been converted into loft apartments carved from the raw factory space.
Behing each door multiples lives are hidden from view, each beating a different tempo. Conceived with a large format film camera, Behind the Door is an anthropological observation? It explores how human beings relate to and interact with the intimacy of the home space, a place in which space and individuals are deeply giving a window to a vibrat microcosm, Behind the Door reveals a diverse group of creative spaces that are as unique as the individuals that reside in them.
Giulia Berto
