Zig Zag Records, Sheepshead Bay

The image above shows the exterior of Zig Zag Records, a family-owned shop in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sheepshead Bay, which shuttered its doors in 2011.

This photograph is part of an ongoing project by photographers James and Karla Murray which documents the storefronts of Brooklyn and New York City. It was featured in the 2009 Counter Culture, part of the “Public Perspectives” exhibition series held at Brooklyn Historical Society. The exhibition also coincided with the publication of the Murray’s first book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York.

Based in New York City, James and Karla’s story dates back twenty-five years, when the couple started taking photographs of local storefronts and owners as a way to document the cultural diversity and essence of New York neighborhoods that were in a continuous state of change. Their focus has been on the “mom and pop” stores of New York, which are regrettably disappearing more frequently and suffering the same fate as Zig Zag Records.

James and Karla Murray continue to document the city through their website and social media. For more information on the Counter Culture exhibition at BHS, please see our finding aid here and for more photographs from the exhibition please visit our image gallery here.

Interested in seeing more photos from BHS’s collection? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images. Interested in seeing even more historic Brooklyn images? Visit our Brooklyn Visual Heritage website here. To search BHS’s entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections; visit BHS’s Othmer Library Wed-Sat, 1:00-5:00 p.m. library@brooklynhistory.org.