Scope and Contents

This series includes approximately 765 photographs taken while Racioppo worked as the official photographer for New York City's Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). He was hired by HPD in 1989 to document the city's rebuilding of its distressed neighborhoods in all five boroughs. The subjects of these photos include demolition, construction, and before and after images of rehabilitated apartment buildings and playgrounds. There are also portraits of tenants in their apartments, squatters, homeless people, building managers, building superintendents, construction workers, HPD staff and program participants, and city and state officials such as Mayor Edward Koch, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and Governor Mario Cuomo. This series also contains many photos of dilapidated buildings (interior and exterior), unsafe living conditions, evictions, crack house interiors, drug paraphernalia, and graffiti.