From Thomas Holton, whom we interviewed a few months ago about his excellent project, The Lams of Ludlow.

Hello Friends, Family and Colleagues,

As you may or may not know, I photographed a Chinese family from 2002-2005 for a project called 'The Lams of Ludlow Street'.  Beyond the remarkable publicity the work has gotten the past year or so, the Lams mean so much more tome than any professional accomplishments.  I learned a lot about myself both personally and creatively and see the Lams as family. 

On June 14th, there was an electrical fire in the walls and the stairwell and the roof of their building on Ludlow Street caught on fire.  The family made it out of the building via the fire escape and are now safe and sound, if not a little shaken up. The fire was caught early but their apartment, the 5th floor and the roof took a lot of structural, water and smoke damage.  The space is not completely destroyed but the building is currently closed for inspection and the Lams are in a Red Cross secured apartment on West 129th street.  

The next step is between the landlord and the NYC Building Inspectors as they assess the building to see if its needs to be completely rebuilt or if only the5th floor apartments and roof should be repaired. This is not a new building and this will probably takes years judging by how long these things seem to take. In the meantime, The Lams have this Red Cross space for only six months before they need to find a new home for themselves. Regardless of what happens with the Ludlow Street building, the likelihood that they will ever live there again is pretty small since they will need a new home soon and perhaps permanently. 

I am contacting you today to let you know that I will be selling a limited 'benefit' edition print of the project with all the proceeds going to the Lams as they rebuild their lives. The print will be a color 11x14 C-Print for $175 for one with discount rates increasing as the number of prints bought increases. Please contact me directly at thomas@thomasholton.com or call me at
(917) 364-8044 to buy some prints the help the Lams. 


Images available: