The Alice Austen House, a fantastic and under-acknowledged resource for photography in New York City, is an exhibition space and museum dedicated to the ground-breaking, absolutely independent and unique photographer Alice Austen (1866-1952). One of America’s earliest and most prolific female photographers, Alice Austen broke away from the constraints of the Victorian era to create her own independent life.

Help the Alice Austen House take some much needed steps toward its own preservation and restoration via the 2012 New York initiative Partners in Preservation.  All you need to do is go to http://www.PartnersinPreservation.com and VOTE – a vote for this site will help direct national funding to keep the Alice Austen House vital and able to continue its programming of exhibitions and education in a beautiful, unique historic space. Voting ends tonight, 11:59PM EST on Monday, May 21.

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Through June 14, 2012 the Alice Austen House Museum is pleased to present Foreclosed: Documents from the American Housing Crisis. The exhibition includes works by: Bruce Gilden, Lauren Greenfield, Todd Hido, Imara Moore, John Moore, John Francis Peters, T.J. Proechel, Brian Shumway, Brian Ulrich and Guillaume Zuili, examining how artists are using photography to record the aftermath of the housing bubble; from its’ beginning in 2006 to the dramatic effects it still has on the American Landscape today. The artists and photographers in the exhibition depict the ruins of rich and poor neighborhoods, as well as the families affected by the economic downturn. As a result, the exhibition aims to explore the disintegration of the American dream and how it effects a culture where home ownership is no longer a reality.

Foreclosed: Documents from the American Housing Crisis
On view through June 14, 2012

The Alice Austen House Museum
2 Hylan Boulevard
Staten Island, NY 10305