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In 2003, the photographer Thomas Holton found himself in a fifth-floor apartment in a tenement on Ludlow Street in Chinatown. He was with a local housing advocate, and he asked the occupants, the Lams, if he could photograph them in their 350-square-foot space.

Thirteen years later, Mr. Holton, now 46, is still documenting Steven and Shirley Lam (their preferred American names) and their New York-born children, Michael, Franklin and Cindy.

Mr. Holton’s mother is Chinese; his American father was a travel photographer. This project began as Mr. Holton master’s thesis at the School of Visual Arts; it will be published as a book next month by Kehrer Verlag, “The Lams of Ludlow Street.”

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At first, Mr. Holton said, he was interested in the Tetris-like arrangement of furniture in the cramped quarters, as well as the family’s daily routine. Mr. Lam worked at an import-export company. Ms. Lam was a stay-at-home mom.

As Mr. Holton got to know the family, the project became more personal. He would pick up the children from school. He visited the Lams’ relatives in Hong Kong and China. When he married, Cindy was his flower girl.

He returned in 2010 for another stint and found the family in the throes of change. “Chapter Two was very turbulent,” he said. “The parents were bickering. The kids were teenagers.” The bed the children shared had been replaced by bunkbeds. Ms. Lam had become a home health aide and spent most of her time outside the apartment.

Mr. Holton’s most recent series represents the calm after the storm. Mr. and Ms. Lam divorced. Mr. Lam now lives in New Jersey. The photographs capture the eldest, Michael, at college, and the teenagers’ life in New York. In one photograph, Cindy, 15, peeks inside her father’s walk-in closet. On Ludlow Street, they didn’t have a closet. “She was amazed,” Mr. Holton said.

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