“Deli Flowers After Dark” was created during late-night walks in Manhattan, photographing flowers, plants, and night-shift workers in run-down New York City delis (small grocery stores, mostly open 24/7, similar to the “Spätis” found in Berlin).
These delis have disappeared rapidly, pushed out by gentrification and unaffordable rents, but also by changing eating and shopping habits.
Several of the delis I photographed closed their doors for good only a few months after the project was completed.
In the 1970s and 1980s, many of these “corner delis” were opened and run by Korean immigrants, who built small grocery businesses in neighborhoods other merchants had abandoned. On what felt like every block in Manhattan, there was a corner deli where you could pick up not only milk, water, and cigarettes, but also fruits, vegetables, tofu, and other basics to throw together a quick late-night dinner. Well-educated Korean immigrants often chose to open these small stores instead of working low-wage jobs because they required relatively little capital to get started—especially for those willing to rent storefronts in high-crime areas that others were fleeing.
Over time, rising commercial rents and landlords’ preference for national chains and banks made it nearly impossible for independent Korean-owned delis to survive. The classic immigrant “second-generation mobility” story added another layer: after years of seven-day weeks and 12–15-hour days, many first-generation owners did not want their children to inherit the stores, and their kids, having gone to college, chose different careers instead. The result was that the familiar corner deli—a small, bright, always-open space of flowers, snacks, cigarettes, and emergency vegetables—quietly vanished from the city’s streets.
The wilted, weary flowers in these images stand in for the broader decline and disappearance of New York City delis. The city that never sleeps is, unmistakably, getting more sleep than it did a few decades ago.
About Anja Hitzenberger
Anja Hitzenberger is a photographer, educator, and consultant. She is the founder of StrudelmediaLive, an educational platform that offers live online photography classes, talks, scholarships, and other programs to people around the world.
Hitzenberger graduated from the Creative Practice program at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York City and has been on the faculty there since 2009. She is dedicated to working with people from different cultures across the globe.
Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions, film festivals, and theater stages throughout Europe, the United States, South America, and Asia. Her photography has been published internationally and is part of both private and institutional collections, including that of the International Center of Photography. She has received numerous artistic grants and has been awarded residencies in Rome, Paris, Warsaw, Beijing, and Tainan (Taiwan).
A significant focus of her practice has been working with live performance and installation, including the production of a multimedia performance piece that toured New York City, Austria, and Korea.
Originally from Salzburg, Austria, Hitzenberger divides her time between New York and Vienna. [Official Website]
