street domestic scenes

Mid-century modern dining room comes to life on Williamsburg sidewalk

by Justin Bettman  (via gothamist)

The Set In The Street series has been bringing cozy domestic tableaus to the streets of NYC since last Fall—that's included open air bathrooms on 17th Street, bedrooms on Rivington Street, and a living room off the L.

The latest surprise entry in the series: a dining room in Williamsburg in front of 6 N 3rd Street. "Its a mid century modern dining room and it is still up for people to take pictures!" photographer Justin Bettman told us. If you're in the neighborhood, head on over and take a photo on the set—just make sure to dress warmly.

This bedroom was built on Rivington Street saturday night

The #setinthestreet project, created by Justin Bettman and Gözde Eker, brings detailed sets to the streets of New York. Last month, a living room that was aesthetically somewhere between Wes Anderson and Welcome to the Johnson's popped up in Bushwick—and last night, a boy's bedroom was built on the Lower East Side.

Bettman tells us the bedroom was just finished up this morning, and while the last one remained for eight days: "I think this one may be taken down sooner since it is in Manhattan." Head to Rivington Street between Orchard and Ludlow, and bring your Instagram... before the teddy bear is gone.

Brooklynite creates realistic sidewalk sets out of discarded furniture

(Photo by Danny Gottleib)

Photographer Justin Bettman has gone Full Kramer with his latest project, which reuses discarded furniture to create miniature sets on the sidewalks. Certainly not for those with certain phobias, but a fun use of furniture that's just going to be sitting out there anyway—this latest one looks good enough to rent out on Airbnb! Bettman tells us:
"I realized, you don't need a studio space to build a set, you can do it on the street. I started to notice how much unwanted furniture and props I was seeing on the street, so I decided to start collecting all these items and trying to build a story around them.

The set that is currently up off the Morgan L stop (White St and Seigel St) is the second of the series. The first one I did, I took down right after I shot it. But everyone kept asking to take pictures there—so I realized that this was a missed opportunity and that it would be really cool to leave these sets up. So for this second one, I left the set up after I left, allowing people to shoot there. I started the hashtag #setinthestreet to aggregate all the photos people take there."

He plans on continuing the project, along with collaborator Gozde Eker, and they're currently looking for wallpaper and claw bathtubs for his next one, if you've got any hot tips.

Sweet open air bathroom set up on 17th Street sidewalk

Even though they take up valuable sidewalk space, there's something kind of charming about the Set In The Street series, which brings domestic tableaus to the streets of NYC. Last night Justin Bettman and Gozde Eker created their latest public installation, and they tell us, "This one is right by the High Line on 17th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. It features a clawfoot bath tub amongst many other little props." Probably best they left the toilet out.

This photo was taken around 9 a.m. today, so it may still be there...

by Justin Bettman  (via gothamist)

'family stuff', Huang Qingjun

Huang Qingjun (1971, Daqing, China) has spent nearly a decade travelling to remote parts of China to persuade people who have sometimes never been photographed to carry outside all their household possessions and pose for him.

The results offer glimpses of the utilitarian lives of millions of ordinary Chinese who, at first glance, appear not to have been swept up by the same modernisation that has seen hundreds of millions of others leave for the cities.

But seen more closely, they also show the enormous social change that has come in a generation. So the photo of an elderly couple of farmers outside their mud house reveals a satellite dish, DVD player and phone.

"People's lives have changed enormously. Maybe their incomes haven't been affected as much as in the cities, but their thinking has," says Huang. The idea for the series about people's material goods, now called Jiadang (Family Stuff), came in 2003 with some photos he took for the magazine Chinese National Geography. But the project didn't really get under way until three years later, when Huang started travelling around China looking for suitable places and people.

Some of the projects took a couple of days, others several months as he waited for one couple to move house. Their home, like millions of others, had been slated for demolition to make way for tower blocks or offices. As they sit on their bed, the wall behind them is marked with the Chinese character chai, meaning "tear down."