About This Item

  • Call NumberOSOS_OH_0223-accs
  • Summary(0:27) Born during Great Blizzard of 1947 -- (1:00) Growing up in South Slope -- (1:16) Moving to Sunset Park -- (1:40) St Michael the Archangel School -- (2:19) The italian american working class community -- (3:39) Immigrant grandparents -- (4:16) Tension between Italian and Irish americans -- (5:40) Living in catholic neighborhood -- (6:55) Doing odd jobs and becoming a photographer -- (10:20) Brooklyn in the 70s -- (10:42) Norwegian population in Sunset Park -- (11:00) Working in Brooklyn -- (11:49) Being from working class family, relationship to reading, libraries and education -- (12:56) Getting by as an artist in New York -- (14:14) Working as a photographer for the NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development -- (17:35) Working in construction in 80s -- (18:00) Getting back to photography -- (19:04) Documenting Brooklyn changes -- (21:06) Neighborhood changes, increasing rents and gentrification -- (23:19) Photographing murals and graffiti -- (26:56) Advice for people coming to Brooklyn -- (27:25) Prospect Park -- (28:29) Getting older -- (29:56) Growing up in a big family.
  • Date2018-04-05
  • Physical Description1 sound file (31 min.) : digital, MP3
  • CreatorRacioppo, Larry
  • Cite AsBrooklyn Public Library, Center for Brooklyn History
  • Digital Public Library of AmericaThis item is represented in the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).
  • Formatsound recording-nonmusical
  • GenreinterviewsMP3
  • NoteAudio interview conducted on April 5, 2018, by Johan Norberg at Central Library. Collected through Our Streets, Our Stories, an oral history project of Brooklyn Public Library. This project is a partnership with Services for Older Adults and the Brooklyn Collection. Related materials: Larry Racioppo Collection, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Collection.
  • SubjectPhotography ; Imes, Birney, 1951- ; National Civilian Community Corps (AmeriCorps) ; School of Visual Arts (New York, N.Y.) ; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum ; Nineteen seventies ; Nineteen eighties ; Immigrants ; Italian American Catholics ; Irish American Catholics ; Working class ; Mural painting and decoration ; Graffiti ; Community development ; Gentrification ; Artists ; Housing--Prices ; South Brooklyn ; Prospect Avenue, Drugs ; Halloween ; Cameras
  • PlaceBedford-Stuyvesant (New York, N.Y.)Park Slope (New York, N.Y.)Prospect Park (New York, N.Y.)Sunset Park (New York, N.Y.)
  • RightsThis work is covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Users are free to share and adapt the work for non-commercial purposes as long as appropriate credit is given to the source and new material created with this work is shared under the same conditions.
  • TitleOral history interview conducted with Larry Racioppo on 2018 April 5.