“Street photography, in its unadulterated form, is a kind of poetry that can speak to our souls by embracing the humanity that we all share, irrespective of our cultural differences.” – William Castellana
William Castellana is an Italian-American Brooklyn-based photographer whose images have been published internationally in periodicals such as Silvershotz, Rangefinder, Creative Quarterly, Newsweek, Time, New York, and others. His work resides in the permanent collections of over 35 museums in the US.
For the majority of his twenty-year career, Castellana focused primarily on the fine art of still life photography. Two years ago, however, he turned his lens on the street life that exists right outside his apartment in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn – where his neighbors are a large community of Satmar Hasidic Jews.
The thirty-seven black and white images in this exhibit from Castellana’s South Williamsburg series form a social document of a people and a place, capturing the rich textures, the unique dress, the old customs and strong traditions that make up the fabric of the Hasidic way of life. They provide a portrait of daily life in the Satmar community, which keeps itself insulated from the secular and ever more gentrified Brooklyn community that surrounds it.
“Street photography” Castellana has said, “is about fidelity and frankness. It’s about the preservation of a time and place…”
Also on exhibit will be twenty-two images from William Castellana’s award-winning still life Botanical series.
