Joseph O. Holmes • The Souls of Machines

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STREIT'S: The Last Days of the Lower East Side Matzo Factory

In the spring of 2015, Joseph O. Holmes carried his camera into the ancient Streit’s matzo factory on New York City’s Lower East Side. There he discovered the chief mechanic wrestling the failing machines into working order, witnessing first hand why the Streit family had reluctantly decided to build a brand new factory 26 miles up the Hudson River. Holmes ended up spending five weeks in the Rube Goldberg plant, navigating six floors over four buildings and capturing the longtime workers and their decaying machines. Almost exactly 90 years after Aron Streit built the factory on Rivington Street, and soon after Holmes took his final photo, the family abandoned the old plant forever. 2 of 36 next