After moving to Buffalo in 1938 to practice optometry, Rogovin became passionately involved in working with and improving his new hometown. In the 1960s, he turned to photography—a long-time hobby—as a means of making visible and dignifying the lives of historically underserved communities in Buffalo and elsewhere.

For the three years leading up this exhibition, Rogovin immersed himself in the Lower West Side neighborhood near his optometry office. This six-block area bordered by Hudson and Cottage Streets and Trenton and Elmwood Avenues has been called home by successive generations of immigrants throughout the city’s history. At the time, the area was shifting from a predominantly Italian community to one increasingly home to Puerto Ricans, African Americans, and Native Americans. Rogovin’s goal as a photographer, however, was to highlight the individuals behind such impersonal social, economic, and ethnic labels, recording the human constants in what the artist called a “neighborhood in transition.”