The Yasgurs, her mother’s family, fled antisemitism in Eastern Europe for America, and built a successful real estate business, settling in Chappaqua, NY. To them, as Laub explains in the audio, they were simply enjoying their hard-won success. The exhibit begins as a personal reckoning with Laub’s family’s wealth, but as 2016 approaches, it becomes something more universal, a stand-in for so many divided families who wondered whether their bonds would survive Trump’s influence.
Her family gave her wide latitude to photograph them, and the results are remarkably non-judgemental. Very little is staged or posed. Laub’s camera is observant but unobtrusive; her work strikes a balance between skepticism and affection.