Rockabye is a new title from Daylight Books, featuring photographs by Lili Holzer-Glier. On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Northeast coast of the United States engulfing homes and crippling communities. Among the worst hit neighborhoods in New York City was Rockaway Beach located in the Borough of Queens. In Rockabye,r Lili Holzer-Glier examines the condition of the Rockaways, post-Hurricane Sandy, through a series of colour landscapes and portraits taken between 2013-2015. The 112-page hardcover ($45) will publish in October coinciding with the third anniversary of the storm.

Press Release

ROCKABYE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LILI HOLZER-GLIER

Essay by David Breslin

• A Photographic Exploration of the Rockaways Post-Hurricane Sandy Book Publishes Coinciding with Third Anniversary of the Storm
• Rockabye To Be Unveiled at Daylight Books 2015 Pre-Launch and Signing at Photoville, Saturday, September 19, 5-7pm, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York
• "By revisiting and continuing to document it, Holzer-Glier pictures Rockaway not as ruin, not as aftermath, but as alive." -- David Breslin

On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy slammed into the Northeast coast of the United States engulfing homes and crippling communities. The storm revealed in devastating detail the vulnerability of coastal communities to storm surges and powerful flooding. Among the worst hit neighborhoods in New York City was Rockaway Beach located in the Borough of Queens. In Rockabye (Daylight Books, October 2015), New York photographer Lili Holzer-Glier examines the condition of the Rockaways, post-Hurricane Sandy, through a series of color landscapes and portraits taken between 2013-2015. The book will publish in October coinciding with the third anniversary of the storm.

Lili Holzer-Glier's photographs in Rockabye reveal the damaged landscape, the debris still scattered, and the lingering emotional, physical and financial toll of the storm on the people of the Rockaways. Her photographs show abandoned houses still plastered with plywood, some tilting at crazy angles as they are left to rot. Sinkholes line city blocks and some low-lying streets continue to flood dramatically.

Rockabye also captures the extraordinary resiliency of a community that continues to rebuild itself. Holzer-Glier documents the progress that has been made, showing houses that have been rebuilt, businesses that have reopened, and long stretches of the Rockaway Beach boardwalk that have been reconstructed stronger than before. Massive man-made sand dunes now encircle the Rockaways, protecting the peninsula from the storms of the future.

Rockabye highlights the story of one family that is still struggling nearly three years later. Dona (below left) lost her home and all of her belongings in Hurricane Sandy. Unable to work due to a degenerative spine disease, she supports herself, her disabled uncle, and her daughters on food stamps and a small monthly disability payment. She receives rental assistance from FEMA, but it is not enough to pay the rent on her apartment. "I still feel like I'm in Sandy," she says through tears. "I don't know what the future holds." October 22, 2013

Above right: Dona (center) and her daughters, Doniece (left) and Sarah, wait for a bus in front of a Queens Econo Lodge. After losing their home in Sandy, they relocated to an apartment on Beach 84th Street in Far Rockaway. Their new block floods routinely and is prone to sinkholes. After a sinkhole caused a gas leak in their home, the family was forced to evacuate. January 6, 2014

Rockabye pays homage to the resilience of a rebuilding community in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Holzer-Glier hopes that her work draws attention to the ongoing struggle of today's storm survivors and the disastrous human consequences of superstorms, which will inevitably worsen as the global warming crisis intensifies.

David Breslin, chief curator of the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston, Texas contributes an essay to the book.

About the Artist:

Lili Holzer-Glier is a photographer and journalist based in New York City. Her work has been published in Vogue, The New York Times and The New Yorker, among other publications. She lives and works in New York City. For more information about the artist, go here.

Book Details:

ISBN: 9781942084099

Hardcover, 7 X 9 IN.

112 PGS. 60 color

$45.00 US.

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About the Publisher:

Daylight is a non-profit organization dedicated to publishing art and photography books. By exploring the documentary mode along with the more conceptual concerns of fine art, Daylight's uniquely collectible publications work to revitalize the relationship between art, photography, and the world-at-large. For more information, visit www.daylightbooks.org

Photograph: Kids play on the newly rebuilt Rockaway Beach boardwalk, destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. October 12, 2013
Lili Holzer-Glier

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