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She came to New York City by train.
The all-rounder X Baszewska was six weeks old and was lying in a laundry basket that her mother had converted into a transport cot.
About 60 years later, the petite lady with a shaved monk haircut, large sunglasses on her nose and a white cat in her lap is sitting on her sofa and smiling at the photographer Sally Davies.
A lot has happened in between.
Baszewska worked as a performance artist, art director and musician and moved into an apartment on First Avenue in 1989, where she has lived since then.
The size of a shoebox, but the front door opens onto the streets of New York
Although the image section is small, the eye needs a moment before it can absorb the overwhelming supply of visual information.
Baszewska himself: neon pink shoelaces, a midnight blue taffeta skirt under a blue blazer, a scarf tied in a bow, several brightly colored bracelets and rings, a fur hat on - oh no, that's another cat that struts along the back of the baroque sofa.
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An armchair with a floral upholstery is in front of the brick wall of the fireplace, which is painted blood red.
Framed pictures, photos, a doll's head and behind a luxuriously shimmering, yellow and black striped curtain: a kitchenette.
"When I moved into this tiny apartment, I decided that I would think of it as the little reception room of a much larger home."
It doesn't matter that the apartment is a shoebox, the main thing is that it has a front door that opens onto the streets of New York.
That is the relationship that the 92 protagonists that Sally Davies portrayed for her illustrated book “New Yorkers” have to their home.
Very few came to put down roots and then stayed.
Often in the exact apartment that they could afford in the 1980s, when downtown was still “cheap and dangerous”.
And no matter how much they complain - about too much or too little dirt, noise or sin - nobody wants to leave it.
This contradiction is part of being New Yorker.
"It's a hard place to live, but is a harder place to leave" - "It is a difficult place to live, but it is even more difficult to leave", says Kate Maxwell on page 90, the 1980 with a One way ticket came from Australia.
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For Davies, the photo project felt like the end of an era.
“My book gives an insight into the life of perfectly normal, wonderful New Yorkers who are still here,” says the 64-year-old.
“But the fact that people are still moving to New York today and staying for 40 years will unfortunately no longer be the case.
Only the rich can afford that, and at some point we will have a city full of rich people.
And a city with only one type of person is pretty boring. "
Marina Press Granger, with her dog Odette, has furnished her apartment in the East Village like a nostalgic powder compact
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
Usually people are only marginally featured in Sally Davies' photography.
She is a street photographer and has been documenting the city since she took a camera with her when she walked her dog 35 years ago.
The native Canadian finds the night particularly attractive.
Then when the colors of the neon lettering and billboards dictate the dramaturgy.
"Either you fall in love with the moonlight on the garbage bag, or you hate it and keep walking," quotes the curator Stuart Horodner in his foreword.
Lois Walden moved to Margot Harley's Upper East Side apartment in 1986
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
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Davies watched the city change.
The shop she had just photographed was no longer there the next time she went for a foray.
The new residents of Downtown were wealthy, and with them the breeds of dogs in Tompkins Square Park changed.
When some of her pictures were added to the permanent collection of the Museum of the City of New York two years ago, a circle came full circle - the pictures would live on.
"But nobody knows who lived behind these facades back then!" Davies shot through his head one night.
With this in mind, Davies went on a search in January 2019: "I had planned to announce the project on social media, but word got around so quickly that people contacted me to be there."
Either you fall in love with the moonlight on the garbage bag, or you hate it and keep walking
Sally Davies, photographer
She took her Sony A7R 111 with an 18mm lens and spent a year visiting New Yorkers, photographing them and having their stories told.
Like Lois Walden and Margot Harley, who were born in the same hospital 75 and 85 years ago and have shared the Upper East Side apartment since 1986, where Harley has lived for 57 years.
Or Marina Press Granger with her fluffy bitch Odette, who furnished her apartment in the East Village like a powder compact.
An elderly lady asked the native Ukrainian whether she lived here as she helped her across the street.
"I wish, but I can't afford it," Press Granger replied and the lady looked at her, "If you belong here, you'll find an apartment." And so it came about.
Rachid Alsataf raves about the Chinese and Ukrainian neighbors
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
The Syrian Rachid Alsataf stands barefoot in his pajamas in his kitchen and raves about the tall buildings, the noises, the Chinese, Ukrainian, Greek neighbors: "I love the big city because I come from a small village."
The New York housing market itself shapes relationships.
When Sam Swope and Jim Tryforos wanted to move in together in 1994, they found two studio apartments one above the other on 90th Street on the Upper West Side and have been living separately since then.
One couple, two apartments: Sam Swope and Jim Tryforos have been living in two studio apartments one above the other on 90th Street on the Upper West Side since 1994
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
Most of the artists, taxi drivers, waiters, musicians, or fortune tellers Davies has portrayed are fortunate enough to live in a fixed rental apartment.
"Believe me, they'll carry me out of here in a plastic bag," says Frances Pilot, who moved from Chicago to New York in 1980.
The slim woman, who loves dog painting and the color green, worked as a painter, gallery assistant, wrote porn and eventually became a specialist author for medical publications.
Will only leave home in a plastic bag: Frances Pilot
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
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Art dealer Gracie Mansion, named after the mayor's residence, had to leave her East Village apartment after 39 years when water damage literally hit her head in 2019. Finding something affordable downtown was impossible and so she moved to the Upper West Side. “Gracie was one of the founders of the East Village art scene. It broke my heart when she was pushed out of the neighborhood, ”says her friend Davies.
Shortly after the last photo was taken in January 2020, the pandemic closed its doors - until today.
“The end of an era” suddenly took on a new dimension and the intimate gaze of the visitor became something precious.
Sally Davies doesn't know anyone in her circle of friends who left town because of Covid.
“Some of us went through the AIDS crisis and then '9/11'.
And we're still here. "
"New Yorkers" by Sally Davies.
Published in English by Ammonite Press, around 20 euros
Source: © March 2019 Sally Davies NYC All rights reserved
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