Wednesday, June 11, 2025 at 8:00 pm EDT
Issac Jeffries: Hidden Mid Century: Capturing The Borscht Belt at Night
Join Issac Jeffries as he explores the intersection of history, memory, and transformation through photography.
A Hudson Valley native and Parsons BFA graduate, Jeffries is drawn to 20th-century spaces—most notably the Mid-century modern ‘Borscht Belt’ resorts of the Catskills. Shooting entirely on film, he lights up long-abandoned buildings after dark, using carefully staged scenes and long exposures to reanimate places left without power—or presence. His work invites viewers into dreamlike ruins where nostalgia lingers and the past refuses to stay quiet. Since 2022, he has served as visual director of The Borscht Belt Historical Marker Project, blending preservation with a cinematic sense of storytelling. His latest series merges New York City nightlife figures with the fading splendor of historic landmarks, extending his exploration of memory’s hold on the present.
A forthcoming photo book deepens that vision.
FREE
And if you haven’t done so already …
Register today for our 48th Annual Conference and Tours, June 18 – 21 in Niagara Falls, Ontario!
The event will be headquartered on the Canadian side in the historic Crowne Plaza Hotel (soon to be rebranded as the Hilton General Brock Hotel) and the Sheraton Fallsview Hotel, right at the Canadian end of the Rainbow Bridge. We will tour both the American and Canadian roadside, explore core SCA attractions, eat in diners, enjoy a fascinating paper symposium, and have a barrel of fun.