For more than 55 years, House’s Barbershop in Harlem sat at the convergence of Black masculinity, cultural landscape, and ritual—something that Jeffrey Henson Scales captured in his 2016 monograph-memoir, House. Now, that body of work, shot between 1986 and 1992 is on view at Claire Oliver Gallery, where Scales deftly captures the intimate details that made House’s a vital space for the community at the height of the neighborhood’s struggle with the crack epidemic. “This was the beginning of a five-year journey within the walls of this narrow place imbued with so much history,” Scales recalls of first accepting proprietor David House’s invitation to enter and document the space.
August 13, 2025
