All photos © Lauren Fleishman

“What is the secret to love? A secret is a secret and I don’t reveal my secrets!”   – Ykov Shapirshteyn, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn on July 22, 2008

In her series “Love Ever After,” photographer Lauren Fleishman shows New York couples who have been married for more than 50 years, photographed in their own homes. “This project is intended as a photographic series of love letters,” says Fleishman, who includes the words of her subjects with each photo.  Images from the series are on view at the central branch of The Brooklyn Public Library in Brooklyn, NY through April 9.  More of Fleishman’s images can be seen at www.laurenfleishman.com.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

“We met each other at a dancing party. It was January 1938. My friend invited me to the party. He said there were a lot of beautiful young girls. Another cadet with high boots had approached her but she didn’t like high boots and so she said no to him. I was the second one to approach her, I had a different uniform, but I’m still not sure if it was my uniform or my face that attracted her to me.”
–Yevgeniy Kissin, Midwood, Brooklyn on March 3, 2008

“We knew each other before the war but we never spoke. He was with other girls because he was much, much older than me. You know he was very nice looking! He was a tailor and he had a place where he made suits for men. When we came back from the war he had gone to my sister’s house. I was staying with her. In August of this year we will have been married 63 years. I would say love came little by little. Not right away. We were young and he was older but I liked him. He spoke to me in a very nice way.”-Golda Pollac, Mill Basin, Brooklyn on February 19, 2008

“Now I am going on 88. My wife is 85 and I’m only wishing for another 5 or 6 years of life. This is all we want. We don’t want to live much longer. As a matter of fact, I always say to my wife, I wish I could reach 94. This is the aim of my existence. I’d like to see my grandson earn a living and my granddaughter get married. We want them to be happy the way we were.”-Moses Rubenstein, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn on August 24, 2008

“I was having a problem in school because I had to write a music paper and I had never written anything about music. It was my mother who had suggested that I go see David because he knew so much about music. So I went over and I thought maybe he would write it for me! But he said no, I’ll help you but you have to write it yourself. He always had very high standards. After we wrote the paper together he asked me to go to a party with some of his army friends. You know, I had never thought of him romantically! He looked at me the way a man who has just come out of the army would look at a sexy woman.”-Sheila Newman, Flatlands, Brooklyn on April 2, 2010