Paul Raphaelson: Sweet Ruin at Front Room Gallery in NYC

Front Room Gallery is proud to present a solo exhibition of photographs by Paul Raphaelson, entitled "Sweet Ruin". Featuring photographs taken at the site of Brooklyn's Domino Sugar Refinery, Raphaelson's images chronicle the final state of the once bustling industrial complex before its dismantling and demolition.

Sweet Ruin Bin Distributor  © Paul Raphaelson Photography
Sweet Ruin Bin Distributor © Paul Raphaelson Photography
Sweet Ruin Package House Lockers © Paul Raphaelson Photography
Sweet Ruin Package House Lockers © Paul Raphaelson Photography
Sweet Ruin Boiler Pipes © Paul Raphaelson Photography
Sweet Ruin Boiler Pipes © Paul Raphaelson Photography

About the exhibition

In 2013, Paul Raphaelson received permission from the developers of the Domino site to explore every square foot of the refinery just weeks before its gutting and demolition. Raphaelson is the last photographer given access to the factory.

At its peak Domino was the biggest industry in Brooklyn and was responsible for 90 percent of the sugar production in the US. Domino sugar factory was its own ecosystem. For more than a hundred years workers toiled, ate bathed and drank beer (from a bar in the basement) at the enormous compound.

By the 1980s Domino had lost its monopolistic grip on the market, and struggled against decades of increasing competition from similar cane refineries, the beet sugar industry, from both non-sugar sweeteners and from corn syrup. The Department of Labor reports that over the same period, manufacturing jobs in Brooklyn fell over 60%. The Domino refinery, which had once employed 4,500 laborers working around the clock, in 1919, was down to a skeleton crew of 220 workers by the time it closed in 2004.

A hardcover book has been published and is available on Amazon: Brooklyn's Sweet Ruin: Relics and Stories of the Domino Sugar Refinery 1st Edition.

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Paul Raphaelson: Sweet Ruin

December 8, 2017 - January 14, 2018

Front Room Gallery New York, NY

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Framing Specifications

Capture0018-431 101MP04_50 SPACER_STRAINER

METRO GALLERY FRAME

Profile: 101
Type: Floating Gallery Frame
Wood & Finish: maple frame with pickled white finish
Purchasing Option: joined frame with matching splines
Custom Wood Spacer: 1/2" wood frame spacer
Strainer: 3/4" wood strainer with crossbar
Custom Frame Acrylic: regular acrylic cut to size