Artist in Residence
Photographs By Joshua Charow

Hardcover | 280 Pages | 10” x 12” | Estimated Ship Date: February 2026

Now available for PRE-ORDER at a discounted price.
Pre-orders help fund the continued photography sessions and the creation of short documentaries on each featured artist.

In the early 20th century, New York City was the manufacturing capital of the United States. At its peak in 1947, over one million people worked in the city’s factories. But by 1980, that number had fallen by more than half. Countless industrial buildings were abandoned, still zoned for manufacturing, making residential use illegal. Artists began renting and purchasing these raw, often derelict spaces and transforming them into livable studios to create their artwork in peace.

By 1971, the city was aware of at least 600 artists living illegally in lofts between Houston Street and Canal Street. In response, the city unanimously passed the Artist-in-Residence (A.I.R.) law, legalizing occupancy in 1,000 lofts, provided tenants applied and received “artist certification” from a municipal board. Certified artists would mark their buildings with “A.I.R." to alert firefighters that people were actually living inside the building in the case of an emergency. If you’re lucky, you can still spot a few A.I.R. signs chipping away on a building facade, left behind from an earlier chapter in New York City.

For the past five years, photographer Joshua Charow has been uncovering and documenting New York City’s original live/work lofts and the incredible artists who have lived in them for decades. His journey began in 2020, after discovering a map of buildings protected under the 1982 Loft Law. He rang thousands of doorbells in these mysterious industrial buildings, searching for the last remaining artists still living and working within them.

After three years, Charow released Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts, a book and an accompanying video series chronicling these spaces and the artists who inhabit them. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of artists who have lived in their lofts since the 1960s, their family members, and friends reached out to Charow to share their stories after seeing his films and book. Over the past year, Charow has continued to photograph these individuals and their remarkable studios, preserving a vanishing world of creativity and history.

Expanding beyond the original Loft Law buildings, Charow has now documented artists living in AIR buildings, former factories, flophouses, cathedrals, and other unconventional spaces, each one a testament to the artistic spirit that has shaped New York. This book is the newest and largest collection of photographs from Charow’s artist loft project. The book features an introduction by Charow, followed by 150 of his photographs of artists in the most imaginative and unique studio spaces in New York City.

Artist in Residence is the follow-up to Charow’s best-selling debut, Loft Law: The Last of New York City’s Original Artist Lofts, which topped Amazon’s photojournalism charts and was featured in CNN, New York Magazine, The Guardian, Financial Times, Cultured Magazine, Highsnobiety, Artnet, Yatzer, World of Interiors, Business Insider, Apollo Magazine, Esquire, and more. Charow’s documentary series has garnered over 50 million views in the past year and continues to spotlight the stories of the artists shaping New York from the inside out.

Featured on the front cover is Rudolph Serra. Featured on the back cover is Nina Klymowska and Jay Ells.

Cover design and renderings by Lev Diamond.

For any questions or support about your purchase, please contact: air@joshuacharow.com