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Ray's Candy Store at Center of Upcoming Photo Show

By Lisha Arino | September 23, 2015 6:08pm
 Photographer Whitney Browne took photos while working at the Avenue A shop.   
Ray's Candy Store at Center of Upcoming Photo Show
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LOWER EAST SIDE — An East Village mainstay — and the locals who frequent it — are the focus of a new photo show opening next week.

At Ray’s: Connection is Why We’re Here” will feature more than a dozen portraits and slices of life captured on film by photographer Whitney Browne, who been taking pictures at Ray’s Candy Store on Avenue A and posting them on her website.

“It was an interesting view from behind the counter,” said Browne, who has been bringing her medium-format film camera to the shop while working overnight shifts to help out Ray Alvarez, the store’s longtime owner.

She found herself drawn to the Ray’s regular customers and the timeless appeal of the cramped storefront, which has been serving egg creams, cups of coffee and Belgian fries since 1974.

“It’s kind of like time is almost standing still. There’s still a connection to this place that has been here for so long and that might not be there much longer,” Browne said, referring to the rapidly changing neighborhood and Alvarez’s health, which kept the elderly, hands-on proprietor out of the store for six weeks following an emergency heart surgery earlier this year.

“It’s a kind of place you know you can go to,” Brown said, describing the appeal of Ray’s Candy Store.

“It’s oddly reliable in this crazy city.”

“At Ray’s: Connection is Why We’re Here” will be on view at 103 Allen St. from Oct. 1 through Oct. 5.