Larry Racioppo’s New York Housing Pictures

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“It was the era after the Bronx was burning, and how the city responded to that in an effort to make a dent,” said Larry Racioppo, who retired last September. “We had to be able to photograph what was really there, and not to sugarcoat anything. The commissioners never told me to hide anything. If there were bad conditions, they wanted to be able to change that. If conditions were horrible, they could get resources allocated. So my photographs were a wonderful tool.”