Edward Sokoloff, age 75, was born, brought up, and resides in Boston. His hobby for more than 40 years has been photography.
On occasion Ed brought his camera along to a party, event or home visit, and took pictures. If he really liked a picture, he would send a print to the person in it. Some of these chance pictures have been prominently displayed at the home of those people for 15, 20 or 25 years, which they said that they valued as the best picture ever taken of them.
Seventeen years ago Ed moved from the suburbs to Boston, where he lived for about 10 years. Living in Copley Square, he began eating dinner out on most nights. He started taking pictures of the front of each restaurant at which he ate. Eventually he glued together the different restaurant pictures, which he hung on the wall of his apartment. Although he had favorite eating places, he began eating mostly at restaurants new to him. He bought a larger frame, added new pictures to the originals, and the size of the frame kept growing from there. Eventually, the pictures were cut down to just the restaurant name, instead of the full front of the building.
This enjoyable pastime became the seed for the idea to create a large montage of different restaurants in the greater Boston area. As Ed got further into the project, the concept expanded from conventional restaurants to cafes and other eating establishments at many different venues, including bookstores, libraries, museums, a church, two former jails, and even a correctional institution. Also a cafe operated by people with physical and/or developmental disabilities. Generally, places qualified as long as they had food facilities which are open to the public. In 2013, the 3-panel greater Boston montage was first introduced. It contains more than 3,000 places, and historically preserves the names of more than 900 restaurants which have closed or undergone name changes.
Other Massachusetts food-related montages now include Boston’s North End, Boston Public Market, greater Boston food trucks, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and state-wide bagels, burgers, coffee/tea, cupcakes, donuts, hot dogs, and ice cream.
Beginning in 2016, the montage concept has expanded beyond food. These montages include Charles River Boathouses, Friendly Scarecrows, Nutcrackers/Snowmen, American Flags, Musical Instruments, Boston Area Catholic Churches, and state-wide Performing Art Theaters and Bicycle Shops. New montages nearing completion include Cape Cod Restaurants, “History on a Canvas”, and state-wide Airports, Beaches, Cheese Farms-Shops, and Tea Rooms-Shops.
This past June Ed was honored to do a one-month, one-person artist exhibition in Boston. In San Francisco where the Marines Memorial Association’s Gold Star Parents annual event is held, Ed’s American Flags montage is hung in the area of the Tribute Memorial Wall which contains the names of all military personnel lost in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11.