It sounds like a sitcom, but it’s Neil Kramer’s life.
The Queens-based photographer has spent the past 10 months holed up in a small, two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with his 80-year-old mother — and his ex-wife.
“It was supposed to be a few weeks,” he told The Post of the cringe-worthy living arrangement.
“My mother was supposed to be in Florida, but that fell through and my ex-wife’s place in Los Angeles flooded, so they both came to New York.”
Kramer has been posting the often-hilarious results of the “stressful” situation on his Instagram account, where he has more than 8,000 followers who commiserate with the trio’s relatable trials and tribulations — laundry, weight gain, loneliness — throughout the pandemic.
“At a certain point, I suggested we go into family therapy,” said Kramer of his kooky COVID-19 pod.
Instead, he took his photo equipment, which he normally uses in his job as a street photographer, and began to stage elaborate shoots with his mother, Elaine, and his ex-wife, Sophia Lansky, a Hebrew and Russian language translator. The two divorced about three years ago after about two decades of marriage.
“This became self-therapy for the three of us,” said Kramer, who captures both mundane and memorable moments in the apartment: competing for space in the bathroom, anxiously watching pandemic press conferences on TV and unearthing old memories.
The shutterbug, who declined to divulge his or his ex-wife’s age, has been sleeping on a pull-out couch. “My ex was nice enough to buy me a new one.” His former bride takes the extra bedroom, and his mother locks it down in the master.
For privacy, Kramer takes to the tub — “I never took a bath in my life, but it became a place to avoid everyone and go on Instagram.” When one of them has to make an important call, they use Sophia’s car as a satellite den. The rent-controlled pad has a small terrace, at least.
Kramer uses a Sony mirrorless camera, a tripod, his laptop and lights to get the perfect shot of his less-than-perfect predicaments, such as one of him bathing, sandwiched between his two roomies.
“My mother was freaking out that we were going to get electrocuted with all the equipment.”
One of his favourite photoshoots? A homemade Macy’s Day Parade in the living room with animal balloons from Amazon filled with helium lent by the local Halal supermarket. “The parade was one of the things I missed most about New York when I was living in LA.”
The tender, if chaotic, picture series has already won a photo competition through ND Photography in the Family category and Kramer is in talks to publish a book. He said other unconventional pods have been reaching out, like one woman locked down with both her ex-husband and her current one. “The ex is living in the garage. It’s a very New York-type arrangement but now I think people all over the world are living like this.”
Kramer plans to continue documenting the small dramas of his pod: “We expect we’ll be in this situation through next summer.”
He says his subjects are “game” to continue the shoots, and rarely give him the diva treatment. “They haven’t formed a union yet, so I bribe them with Dunkin’ Donuts,” Kramer said.
His unpaid subjects also get final approval. “I show them everything before I post,” said Kramer. “I don’t want to get killed.”
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