The Rathkopfs

Happy New Year 2026 from the Rathkopfs!

In 2018, we started a personal project called Grassroots, following a local political campaign in Brooklyn.

Not because we were interested in being campaign photographers but because we were craving something we felt we had lost: community, purpose, idealism.

The candidate was .barkan, an acclaimed journalist. His campaign manager was . What drew me in was the energy of the team around them, young, scrappy, tightly knit. Outsiders in many ways, but united by a belief in something better.

This was never about endorsement. It was about witnessing a moment.

A group of people knocking on doors, organizing from the ground up, and holding each other when the results came in and didn’t go their way.

Politics gets a bad rap and rightfully so, most of the time. But many people, especially on the local level, are doing it from a deep sense of service and community. And often, at great personal costs. Wishing the candidates well tonight, especially those with less machine backing.

Today Zohran is running for the New York City mayor and from an underdog he became one of the favorites.It’s amazing to see when eight years has taken him.

If you are coming to festival , come say hi to us at our HER2 cube

Today is birthday. When we met twenty years in that 80’ies music club in@Prague I knew I’d met someone amazing. I didn’t realize that I found my best friend and later on the most incredible father and partner. Jordan you are funny, handsome, smart, talented and you have the biggest heart I’ve ever known.
Happy birthday to!

Happy and Healthy 2025!