About Susan Schiffman’s portraits of rent-stabilized East Village homes

Longtime East Village resident Susan Schiffman is the subject of a Times feature today (the online version is here). 

The piece focuses on her work photographing rent-stabilized apartments in the neighborhood. 

Since 2016, Ms. Schiffman has been photographing dozens of her neighboring East Village apartments. Her photos depict the clutter that collects when one lives in the same home for decades, the intimacies of people's domestic lives and the homemade quality of spaces that have never been renovated. 

The scenes are timeless in that there are few, if any, elements that give away exactly when they were photographed — many of them look like they were captured decades ago, stuck in a past version of New York. The images are meant to be portraits of the tenants, without actually showing any people in them. 

With the city's housing crisis as a backdrop and with the rent-stabilization system’s promise of affordability feeling threatened, Ms. Schiffman's photos evoke a soothing, homey sentiment. The apartments she documents are unfussy and far from luxurious, but are full of character and are strongly loved homes in their own sense.

You can find her images on Instagram. And through the years, EVG has been pleased to publish her work and interviews. You can access the archives here. 

Susan is also part of a group show at Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market St., near East Broadway, through Oct. 20.

 

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I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman 

Tenant: Jeanne, since 1986 

Why did you move to the East Village? 

I am a native New Yorker. My father is from Queens. He is Italian American. My mom is from Brooklyn; she is Irish. We like to call that a mixed marriage. I am one of those classic Italian-Irish mixes from that era of New York. 

My dad became a firefighter and they moved when they got married and started to have kids. I was born in Flatbush. They moved to Staten Island like everyone else after the Verrazano Bridge was built. I grew up in Staten Island and I went to NYU. That is how I ended up in the East Village. It was a no-brainer. 

I had a friend in college who lived on 1st and 1st. It was 1980, and it was like venturing into the wilds. People told me not to go to the other side of Tompkins Square Park. My first apartment was on 11th between 1st and A. 

 I had a friend who lived on 2nd and B. When I went to visit her, I would stay over. It felt safer that way. When my daughter was in junior high in the late 90s, her friends’ parents did not allow them to visit. Until the restaurant scene started percolating. 

Where did your daughter go to school? 

She went to public schools. She began elementary school in the Lower East Side School. It was in the PS188 building. The name was changed to East Village Community School when they moved to 12th Street. It was the first small progressive school in District 1. Neighborhood School became the second. I kind of pulled her out. There was a shooting one day nearby. I moved her to PS19, a more conventional, traditional elementary school. 

When I first moved Chloe to PS19, it wasn’t going well. They would say, “we’re going to take a spelling test,” and Chloe had no idea what a spelling test was. The progressive alternative schools in the neighborhood didn’t give tests or grades. Students received report cards, but they were narratives about how they were doing, not letter grades. 

I made an appointment with Judith Foster, who had been Chloe’s kindergarten teacher at the Lower East Side School, for some support and guidance. She was now the principal at The Neighborhood School. Judith is an incredible educator, resource and support for students and parents. 

For middle school, Chloe went to the Lab School in Chelsea. It was a good sequence because she learned how to navigate the city. She used to go to swimming lessons on 23rd Street. She could walk from PS19 as a 5th grader through Stuyvesant Town with a friend. 

By the time she went to junior high, she would take the bus. She could take the subway in the daytime. She went to Bronx Science for high school. The kids were from every neighborhood in New York City. They had the run of the city. They lived in Chinatown, Jackson Heights, Roosevelt Island. I feel good about that. 

The city is a great place to bring up kids. It’s nice to have a couple of good friends still in the East Village because so many people are gone. I met Raquel through downtown theater people. I met her when she had the New York Theater Asylum, and I remember bartending there. Chloe must have been a baby. We’ve known each other for over 30 years. She’s a unique character in the East Village.

How did you find your apartment? 

I was living on 11th Street and 1st Avenue in a tiny little two-room apartment in the back of a tailor shop. There was one room, and it didn’t have windows. I should have had the storefront, but what did I know? I was still in college. 

I got pregnant with my boyfriend, who was like the coolest dude. He had a recording studio in a basement. Remember when everyone had music in the basement in the 80s? We had Chloe there. 11th Street between 1st Avenue and Avenue A. I still remember going into labor. I said, “go get the cab.” We had a $5 bill taped to the dresser for the cab to take us uptown to the midwives at St. Luke’s Roosevelt. All the way up to Lincoln Center — $5! 

My boyfriend had to go up to 2nd Avenue to get a cab. Cabs were not coming to Avenue A. There were three of us now living in this tiny little place. We realized we had to get another place. We didn’t think we could afford anything. I knew the people that were living here, in my current apartment. They were friends who I worked with in the experimental theater scene. 

When one of my friends decided to go back to Germany, he offered us the apartment. He knew we had a baby and needed more space. It was an act of generosity. This was like a palace with 2 bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen. It’s not that many square feet, but it feels very spacious. My daughter could have her own room. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. What we were paying wasn’t very much, but it seemed high at the time. And it has gone up. But it is still affordable. It’s how I can be an artist. It was a sublet when they left.

One of them lives in the city part-time, and the other stayed in Germany. Eventually, by the book, with the legal percentage increase in rent, the lease would be in my name. We were young and in flux. I was in flux, but I had a baby, so I couldn’t be that much in flux. 

And that is why I still have the apartment. People say, “you are so lucky.” It is not about luck. We lived through some hard times over here. There were the frequent insurance fires, abandoned buildings, the dope and crack years, the gentrification wars, and of course, the devastation of AIDS. 

What do you love about your apartment? 

So many things. But I think the most important thing is the light. And people might laugh because they think there is no light in NYC. But because of the way the apartment is situated, the light moves around all day long. So different rooms become lit. I move around with the light. My daughter tried living in a bunch of other places. And said, “I am spoiled for life. I didn’t realize it, but I need an apartment that actually has sunlight.” I was worried when they built the building next door. That it would cut off my light. 

I used to lie in bed and see the Empire State Building. That does not happen anymore. But I can still see the moon. This is East. When the moon rises, I can see it. I’m also close to the roof. It’s not a particularly nice roof. It has a giant T-mobile tower and cell phone stuff everywhere, but it’s my porch.

I’ve done a lot of work with astronomy in my artwork. I have shot several films from my East Village roof. It’s important to go out and check-in with the planets and see where the stars are. I can see the bridges. We used to be able to see the World Trade Towers. 

When I look at these floorboards, I know that these are the same floorboards walked on from the time this building was built in 1898. The East Village is a really wonderful part of New York City, and it is the only place in the world where I feel relaxed, accepted and at home. 

There isn’t one closet in the apartment. It’s not like the Upper West Side. It’s immigrant housing. The wardrobe I have for my clothes was here when I moved in. I think it’s been here since 1920. It’s not fancy. I never changed anything. Why bother? I appreciate that history. I need to live in a place with a lot of history. 

We had a downtown, underground culture mixed with the old communities that were here. None of us had any money. There was a huge creative spirit. All of these things mixed together made a very special cocktail. It’s a connection. We have a certain way of understanding history here. We’re on the continuum.

If you’re interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in The New Yorker!

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some photos here for this ongoing EVG feature, which has been on hiatus of late.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Fares aka Sultana, since 1990 

Why did you move to the East Village?

There is an art movement in the East Village. Especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s. And I’m gay and a drag queen. I can be myself here. No one really cares. 

I went to Parsons. The East Village has a vibe. There was always a vibe, even today. Philip Glass lives here. And Quentin Crisp lived here. He didn’t let anyone see his apartment. I heard it was all papers and magazines. You could always call him and take him out to lunch. He was listed in the phonebook. You could call him and tell him I would like to take you out to the diner. Quentin Crisp with the scarf and the makeup. This is the core of the East Village. 

How did you find your apartment? 

It was always impossible to find an apartment in New York City. After I saw the apartment, a friend said, the most important thing is for you to have a bathtub. That is why I rented the apartment. I saw some other apartments. They were like a walk-in closet. The rent was $600 a month. 

I worked at a hair salon, the Gemayel Salon. I became friends with the owner, we became like family. I met a woman at the hair salon. Her name is Elaine and her husband’s name is Arthur. She said her husband is a dentist and he owns some apartments in the East Village. There is an apartment available to rent. When Arthur’s mother came to America from Eastern Europe, she bought apartments. 

I like her, she is a very nice woman. Everyone is saying get ready, they will be offering a buyout, get a lawyer. Nothing yet. Now there is a fight in the family between the two brothers. 

This apartment has been renovated twice. The floor was a disaster. The problem is I’m a painter. I paint in oil and acrylic and I’m a drag queen. There isn’t enough room for paints, canvases, dresses and wigs. I’m organized in the mess. I get dressed every morning. 

What do you love about your apartment? 

I think the apartment is good luck. In this apartment, I paint these masterpieces that I will ship to Jordan. I am very scared of moving out of this apartment into something more organized. I won’t have the lovers that I had in this apartment. If the walls could talk! 

And I won’t have the paintings that I have painted here. And they sell. They sell internationally. In the Middle East and in America, in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. I sold the swimming pool paintings. I am not going to tell you how many swimming pool paintings I have sold. I am not even aware. Thirty-nine. I cannot paint swimming pools anymore. Khalas! The trend is over. 

I had a teacher who said, “anything you don’t like in a painting, you take it off.” I’m going to do a night scene. This might be called “The Bicycle Thief,” like the movie. 

If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in The New Yorker!

Reminders: First East Village Photo Club meeting is tomorrow

Reposted from Jan. 23...

Updated 1/31

The Tompkins Square Library will be closed tomorrow for repairs. So the meeting is taking place at the Ottendorfer branch, 135 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. Same meeting time: 11 a.m.

Susan Schiffman is looking to start a photo club for interested East Village residents.

Schiffman, who has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant, shared this overview:

I want to invite people who love to take photos to come together to meet, to share and to talk about photos they have taken or seen or projects they are thinking about starting. Maybe we can put a show together.

We have a space to meet once a month at the Tompkins Square Library. It would be great if you could stop by and join the conversation about photography.

Please let me know if you are interested or have any questions. You may email me here.

We will meet the first Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon. The first meeting is Saturday, Feb. 1. If you would like to share your photos, then please bring prints or photos on a usb drive.

You may catch up on Susan's posts for EVG here. She was also featured in The New Yorker this past summer.

[Updated] Picture this: Details on how you can be part of an East Village photo club

Updated 1/31

The Tompkins Square Library will be closed on Feb. 1 for repairs. So the meeting is taking place at the Ottendorfer branch, 135 Second Ave. between St. Mark's Place and Ninth Street. Same meeting time: 11 a.m.

--

Susan Schiffman is looking to start a photo club for interested East Village residents.

Schiffman, who has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant, shared this overview:

I want to invite people who love to take photos to come together to meet, to share and to talk about photos they have taken or seen or projects they are thinking about starting. Maybe we can put a show together.

We have a space to meet once a month at the Tompkins Square Library. It would be great if you could stop by and join the conversation about photography.

Please let me know if you are interested or have any questions. You may email me here.

We will meet the first Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to noon. The first meeting is Saturday, Feb. 1. If you would like to share your photos, then please bring prints or photos on a usb drive.

You may catch up on Susan's posts for EVG here. She was also featured in The New Yorker this past summer.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Jenny, since 1978

Why did you come to the East Village. How did you find your apartment?

I was here in the summer and I lived on Bleecker Street with a bunch of hippies. They told me “don’t ever go past Third Avenue. There are speed junkies in railroad apartments.” I was scared.

I went back upstate to where I am from — North Tonawanda. I came back down to buy astrology books in the East Village. We didn’t have the internet then and I couldn’t find the astrology books anywhere else. The Astrology Center was on Sixth Street next to the Cauldron, the macrobiotic restaurant. I was checking out the neighborhood and thought “this place is groovy.” You had Pete’s Spice and Natural Food stores. I didn’t have any of that upstate. It was 1971.

I came back down to the East Village and I had my daughter with me. I am a single mom. I got a job working on this street. My father and my brother build sailboats. My grandmother and grandfather are pastry chefs. I had the culinary thing and the woodworking thing. The town where I grew up is where they created the first hand-carved carousels. My grandfather lived across the street and he would take me in there to go on all the rides.

I started a woodworking job. I needed a place to stay. My boss said go talk to Mr. Kuperberg. I went over there and said “Mr. Kuperberg, I have a kid, I have no money, I need a place to stay.” He gave me the keys. When I came in the apartment it was all chocolate brown and lime green. Two dancers from "Fiddler on the Roof" lived here. Before I moved in the apartment was two separate apartments with the bathroom in the hall.

I opened up a shop on Sixth Street and I built handmade wooden instruments. I was with the NYS Council on the Arts. I moved uptown and was working at a furniture store called Impressions in Wood. I made gift items for Macy’s and Gimbels. Then I came back down to the East Village.

By this time I had had a couple of close accidents with the table saw. I thought this is the time to give up the sawdust and I’m going to open a coffee house across the street. There were 12 restaurants in the neighborhood in 1978 — I counted.

When I opened my restaurant, I wanted to have a piano and a little cafe. Joel Forrester is a famous jazz pianist. He came over to play. People kept asking me to make food and at the time I didn’t really know how. Eventually it grew into a 70-seat restaurant. There were lines out the door. We made our own tofu and aduki steamed buns.

I had that big restaurant and then the 80s came. Pluto was just going into Scorpio: everybody was getting AIDS; people were going into rehab; self-help books filled the shelves at Barnes & Noble. All of the astrology books went out.

Pluto was in Leo when I was born, it was all about rock and roll then, Mick Jagger, etc. When Pluto was in Virgo everybody was eating natural foods and starting companies that reflected those interests, including macrobiotics. Then Pluto is in Libra, we have Studio 54, disco and then we go into rehab, Pluto went into Scorpio right after Libra.

An astrologer came here and he said you know “Pluto’s coming and he’s going to sweep everyone, just take them away." And it happened, everybody got AIDS, people disappeared. Keith Haring had been in my restaurant every day.

I was going to buy the building for $100,000 but I would have to kick everybody out to make it work. I just couldn’t do it, I’m a spiritual person.

Somebody came here, bought the building, chased all of the old ladies out and said “I’m going to raise your rent five times or I’ll make your life miserable." So he made my life miserable. Unbelievable. He stuffed rags down the sewage system so the sewage would back up in my restaurant. He was doing so much construction. There were rats running around. I decided I’m done.









What do you love about your apartment?

I’m still here. It’s been 41 years. An astrologer told me “your lights are fixed, you will never move.” I wonder how many more years can I climb the stairs? In astrology we can look at your 4th house and we can see what your home is going to be like. You come in here and you say “neat. She’s neat.” That’s Saturn in the 4th house, no messes. On a good day it’s sunny. That’s Leo in the 4th house.





I like the Southern exposure. I like the brick. I look over the buildings on Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album cover. I was there too, when The Rolling Stones made their “Waiting on a Friend” video on this block.

This is a real creative vortex. I’ve seen a lot of people create around here. One friend told me the East Village is a fertile crescent — it’s the vortex, the center of the universe. It’s really true. You get the most amazing people.



If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in the new issue of The New Yorker!

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She shares some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Lola Saénz, since 1993

Why did you move to the East Village?

I grew up in El Paso, Texas. I always wanted to be an artist. I wanted to live in either Los Angeles or New York City — the East Village or Soho. It was all based on the movies that I would see.

When I moved here I ended up on King Street, not far from Soho. I lived there for a year. I had two roommates and we had to move in a hurry. It’s a long story.







How did you find your apartment?

I got a call from a close friend aka Prima. Asked if I wanted to stay in her studio apartment in the East Village while she was in Florida.

So I came to see the apartment. On my way here, on the corner of 12th Street, a guy asked me if I wanted to buy grass. I didn't buy any, but I was like, This is the East Village!

So I moved in. About three months later, my good friend aka Prima decided to stay in Florida. She came back and we had the lease transferred to my name. That was August 1993. I never looked for a place in the East Village — the apartment came to me.









What do you love about your apartment?

I’ve grown here. If I die today or tomorrow I would die happy — I've accomplished good things ... but I still have many more things I want to do with my life as an artist!





If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email. And read about her in the new issue of The New Yorker!

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant in The New Yorker

[Photo from Sheila's apartment last October]

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant.

She started sharing them with EVG in July 2017.

Susan's feature is the subject of a Talk of the Town piece in The New Yorker this week titled "Rent-Stabilized and Nervous in the East Village."

Here's an excerpt from the piece by Paige Williams:

On a recent Sunday, Schiffman walked over to a building near First Avenue. A woman named Jenny was waiting for her on the fourth floor, in yoga pants and a hoodie imprinted with the words “Locals Only.” Schiffman took in the incense and the wood carvings from India. Jenny, a chef and an astrologer, divulged that, in the sixties, she became a “militant vegetarian” after an acid trip during which God said, “What are you doing?” as she cooked a cube steak.

“Why did you move to the East Village?” Schiffman asked. Jenny answered with a story that involved 1971, Keith Haring, “a bunch of hippies,” aids, macrobiotics, Madonna, Oprah, and “Pluto going into Scorpio.” Jenny said that when she first moved in the apartment was “all brown and lime green. Two dancers from ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ lived here.”

Schiffman plucked a Nikon from her backpack and started shooting — moody light at the bedroom windows, a bouquet of bodega roses. Jenny checked an astrology app and said, “Oh! Melania Trump’s gonna have Uranus on her sun.”

You can access all the I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant features — 29 with No. 30 coming soon — on EVG here.

I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman has been photographing the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.

Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenant: Anthony, since 1990

Why did you move to the East Village. How did you find your apartment?

I am a fifth-generation New Yorker, and have had several apartments in New York City. On the side while working with the HIV epidemic from the start of the 1980s, I did volunteer workshops in prisons and communities in conflict resolution and community building. I saved, and in 1990, decided to travel and see what other people and organizations were doing to bring those torn apart by hate together, and to freely share the curricular that was inspiring me.

The areas of major conflict in our news at the time were Northern Ireland, Northern India, South Africa, Israel and Palestine. It was an open plane ticket, and I envisioned possibly finding another home, another call. The journey did reinforce fully the sense that the earth and all its people really are my family, my wider home.

I guess it was family that called me back. I came back. I had let go of my apartment like many of us foolishly do. I left the city actually two times before when I had had it with the grit, and felt that I would not be coming back.

After several months, I landed again at the end of 1990 looking for another place to stay. Back then, we didn’t really worry about it too much — we could always find a place.

My dear, late cousin Bill Donovan, two months apart from me, lived in this space. I grew up with Bill, loved him very much. I miss him terribly. He was a wonderful artist. He lived in this space, once filled from wall to wall with his paintings. He worked at Pearl Paint on Canal Street at the time. Bill fell in love about the same time I landed. He said, “I have to move out of my place, I just fell in love and it's looking serious. (Marriage and beautiful daughter Kirsten ensued.) Why don’t you take my apartment?”

I gave myself one month to live here. Absolutely tiny, but I could put my bags down and look for another place. I never intended to stay here. As you can see, I wouldn’t be able to have a wife or child in this apartment. It probably contributed to my being single these years.

I got really busy and didn’t have time to look for another place. The apartment was convenient. The location was good. I always felt my history here. My great, great grandparents on my mother’s side, the McAllisters, were married on Avenue B and Eighth Street in St. Brigid’s in 1867.

Since 1864, McAllister tugboats, barges and shipping family still ply the waters of our harbor. Our great protected harbor, the prime reason the Dutch settled and world trade became centered here. I worked in the shipyards and tugs as a youth, including a wild offshore adventure.

But as a teenager, I was right around the corner at the Fillmore East a lot. The Fillmore was a spiritual place in my memory. It was where black, brown and white kids met through music and carried the message of our time: stop war, get together. I have this apartment today only because of the way the universe works.











What do you love about your apartment?

I was reluctant to live here. I got over the fact that the apartment is tiny after traveling the world and seeing poverty in many areas of the world. I realized how precious it is to have a small space, to have a space of my own.

I give thanks for the space and for the refuge. Having a tiny place has forced me to not have clutter. What you see here now and under here and over there is because my beloved mom passed away. I haven’t gone through all of her boxes yet. It’s an ongoing process.

A small place enables one to focus. I’ve been able to produce all of my documentaries and writings in this little space. At one time all of the walls had to be covered with storyboards. It’s become a sacred space for me.

It has also become a refuge to rescue two beautiful companions — my cats. I do have a penchant for space. I spend a lot of time not in this space, but in our city and in our neighborhood. I am compelled to spend much time in this neighborhood's religious spaces.

Within a 10 minute walk of this apartment in any direction, there is a Tibetan temple, a Hindu temple, three Jewish synagogues, a Catholic, Protestant, Episcopal, Russian Orthodox, a few Latino churches, a Sufi group, and a Mosque, etc. I've learned to love these sacred spaces and their faith leaders, the true living preservationists of the culture and history of our neighborhood.

I grew up with parents who were very open, curious, loving and very appreciative of other cultures. My father was a world historian and my mother lived the phrase “a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet.” She saw the best and the light in all people. It's the gift from these two humans. I just love the different faiths being so close and the ethnic diversity in a place where I could pursue my passions and not have to spend all of my money and time worrying about rent.

My heart and efforts go out to the youth today. We've lost most of all the mom-and-pop shops due to rents doubling and tripling. We've had to fight hard the developers and irresponsible DOB and landlords, but my apartment remains a refuge and a haven.

For decades my passion is to help stop the secretive, non-democratic nuclear weapons industry, with it's false sense of security, lies, their unfathomable taxpayer cost and great current threat to all life, climate and humanity.

The last large work made in this apartment is my 2015 film "Good Thinking, Those Who've Tried to Halt Nuclear Weapons."

What initially bothered me about my little place here is I didn’t have those cavernous spaces over my head where expanding thought comes more naturally. I so appreciate space. This little spot on earth forms the center of the universe, of a wheel where I can then venture out.



If you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

I am a photographer of rent-stabilized apartments

[Photo by Susan Schiffman]

Since July 2017, longtime East Village resident Susan Schiffman has contributed an ongoing feature to EVG titled I Am a Rent-Stabilized Tenant.

Susan is the subject of a Q&A today at Gothamist. To an excerpt!

What do you look for when you photograph an apartment?

I go in totally blind. With these apartments, I don't know most of the people. They don't send me pictures. We don’t talk about it. There is a text that has always been important to me. It's called the Poetics of Space, and it’s basically about how the house is a metaphor for the mind. There are few things that informed this work and that is one of them.

To get into these people’s homes and see how they arrange their jewelry, their clothing, and their books — it’s people's arrangements that make them feel safe and secure in their home. When I walk into home, I can tell a really important arrangement. It's one thing to live in a house: A house has a basement and an attic and all those rooms and closets. It's another thing to live in an apartment for 40 years, where do you house all those memories and belongings?

You can revisit her past EVG posts here.

And if you're interested in inviting Susan in to photograph your apartment for an upcoming post, then you may contact her via this email.

I Am a Rent-Controlled Tenant

East Village resident Susan Schiffman documents the apartments of rent-stabilized tenants — and for this post, rent-controlled — living in the East Village for her Instagram account, I Am a Rent Stabilized Tenant. She will share some of the photos here for this ongoing EVG feature.



Photos and text by Susan Schiffman

Tenants: Terry (since 1975) & Charlie (since 1965)

Why did you come to the East Village?

I came to the East Village because Charlie and I met. We started dating. We met in Ty’s, which is a gay bar that still exists, much to our amazement. It is on Christopher Street. Do you know the Moth? Charlie did a story on the Moth about the first night we met. It’s called “Just One Drink.”

Charlie said he didn’t want to date. His friends said “they’re not going to come to you, so you must go out to them.” Charlie said, “all right, I will go to a bar and I will have a drink.” And then we met.

I was living on Sullivan Street at the time. There are 13 years between us. I was younger and he was more mature. He had been in this apartment already for over a decade. We dated for about six months. I had a lot of stuff here and a lot of stuff there. My lease was coming due. We started talking about moving in together. I moved in.



How did Charlie find the apartment?

He was living on the Upper West Side. He was a theater, artistic, 100-percent visual person. He had a dear, close friend who was female. They were young, it was the 1960s. They decided to get married. She knew he was gay. Unfortunately, marriage kind of killed their friendship. They decided it was a bad idea that they had gotten married and got a divorce. It was amicable.

A friend who lived across the street from this apartment told Charlie that the apartment was available. The previous tenant had lived here for over 50 years and had passed away. Charlie got the apartment. It was a mess. Nothing had been done for 50 years. The floors were bare and the walls were crummy. He was 27, a designer with an artist’s eye. He said, “I can fix this.”

There are things in this apartment that have been here since I arrived. With a little bit of work we could make that something. The dresser came out of somebody else’s apartment. He was young. He didn’t have any money. Whatever he found he found a way to use it. When he did have money, even actors make money occasionally, he would buy art.

He had a friend who didn’t know what to do with himself so Charlie said you should find something and focus on that and collect it and see what you can do. Charlie decided it was going to be owls.



If you knew Charlie he doesn’t wait for you to say yes, he just starts doing it. He started finding owl things. His friend never did take up the owl project.

[Terry gestures to some of the photos and paintings on the walls]

That is Marin County looking at San Francisco. We were waiting for the ferry into San Francisco.

This one is a friend of ours, Steve and his wife on their trip to Norway. He did this one of the fjords in Norway. He was inspired by Charlie’s panorama technique.

That we bought on Second Avenue from a guy who had a table on the street. I grew up in the country. Charlie was born and bred in Brooklyn.

That is by Buffie Johnson. That’s actually Yul Brynner at the time he was making his Broadway debut with Mary Martin. Charlie found it in a thrift shop. He contacted Ms. Johnson at one point and she said “Oh is that what happened to that? I had some work being done in the house and it just kind of disappeared.”

That’s my spirit of the swamp.

The fabric thing is because the walls are terrible and Charlie was a designer. He designed clothing and costumes. He would, we would, we did these kitchen walls three times. Charlie would find a fabric that he liked. It was orange first, then brown then black. He would sew the panels together and then we would get up on the ladder with a staple gun and start laying it around the room. It’s smooth and then you can’t see the walls behind it, which are just a disaster.





What do you love about the apartment?

What I love about this apartment is that it represents our life together. I have not changed the phone message since Charlie passed away in September. If you call you will hear “you have reached Terry and Charlie.” I’ll get to it. I’m not ready yet.

In this moment in time, this is our home. This is where we lived. I went back to college and got a new career. We did everything we needed to do to live a life together. This was our home base. This was Charlie’s sanctuary. Sometimes he had a little trouble with the world. He felt safe here.











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