I was contacted by Andrew Satter via Linkdin back in March. Andy is the Founder & CEO at Andrew Satter & Associates, Inc. Executive Leadership Coach and Strategic Thinking Partner for C-Suite Executives and Startup Founders / CEO’s. He told me about a project he was initiating to resurrect a large group of black and white photos he shot back in the mid-1970s. He was in the planning stages for future photo exhibitions of these compelling images which had not seen the light of day for decades.
Andrew Satter, photo from Linkdin.
He shot these photos during the period he attended a Film & Photography school called Imageworks for a short time and after at Boston College where he continued his education . Andy explained that back then he had lived in Cambridge for a time and had become a regular customer of Russ Young’s Kitchenette Diner. During this time he started taking candid black & white photographs of his visits to the diner and they stand out as an intimate look at the daily interactions of the people who worked or patronized this diner, not realizing that he was capturing the end of an era and by 1978 or so, the diner would be closed and moved.
In my recent post about Remembering Douglas A. Yorke, Jr., I mentioned that I was possibly the last member of the Society for Commercial Archeology to speak with him prior to his accident on Easter Sunday and subsequent passing away from his injuries eleven days later. The reason I had phoned Doug on Good Friday was to give him a heads-up that I had mentioned his name to Andrew Satter whom I had just met with a day prior. During our meeting, I had imparted to Andy the info about Doug’s March, 1977 article in Yankee Magazine, where he wrote about The Kitchenette Diner in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I told Doug about Andy’s archive of black & white photos he shot of the diner and that he may be contacted by Andy. Unfortunately Andy did not have time to contact Doug before that Easter Sunday accident. Just for reference, I thought I would include three photos that Doug Yorke sent me a few years back of the Kitchenette Diner…
Kitchenette Diner – Cambridge, Mass.
1977 photo by Doug Yorke
Kitchenette Diner – Cambridge, Mass.
1977 photo by Doug Yorke
Russ Young & Charlie Diamandis at the Kitchenette Diner
1977 photo by Doug Yorke
Well I am happy to report that Andy Satters’ photos of the Kitchenette Diner will be shown for the first time from June 23rd thru to the end of July in Danbury, Connecticut. Andy also hopes to have a showing in the Boston/Cambridge area in the near future.
The Diner Project (1974–1977) A COMMUNITY LOST TO PROGRESS
Photography by Andrew Satter
THE DINER PROJECT is an exhibition of forty-two black-and-white photographs taken in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the mid-1970s—a time in American labor history when a blue-collar job could support a family and was yours for a lifetime.
Enter and meet the staff and regulars of Russ’s Kitchenette Diner, a tightly knit community that embraced joy and laughter in the face of encroaching urban renewal, shifting race relations, and upheaval in America’s place in the world.
OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, June 22, 2024, 3:30-5:30 pm
Mothership on Main
331 Main St., Danbury, CT 06810
ON VIEW: Jun 23–Jul 28, 2024
HOURS : Tue–Sun, 7:30am–3:00pm
EMAIL: info@satterphoto.com
WEBSITE: http://www.satterphoto.com
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