Single Room Occupany (S.R.O.)

Salzmann was assigned to live in an SRO called “The Valencia” on West 95th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue in Manhattan. Many of the residents struggled with drug addiction; some had recently been released from mental hospitals, part of the first wave of deinstitutionalization that would reach greater and greater levels in subsequent decades. His task was to become as involved in the lives of other residents as they would agree to, and to collect various kinds of data. In time, with the consent and collaboration of residents, he began to photograph freely in the building and in the streets around it, and then began a tenant-based filmmaking program.

( 11x14’’ 7 prints + 5 text panels to be mounted to gatorboard )