Arlene Gottfried’s scenes of New York nightlife
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Arlene Gottfried
In the late ’70s, American photographer Arlene Gottfried (1950-2017) was deeply immersed in the decadent delights of New York nightlife. Whether partying at Studio 54 with Disco Sally, hanging out with the trapeze artists at GG’s Barnum Room in Times Square, or kicking it with Stonewall legend Marsha P. Johnson during Gay Pride, Gottfried was fully in the moment; ever-ready to capture the scene with those who lived on the fringes of the city.
Gottfried’s New York, blighted by the systemic racist policies of “benign neglect”, had been crumbling into despair since the late ’60s. But that didn’t stop those who called it home from persevering. In the new exhibition, Arlene Gottfried: After Dark, we see the city’s nightclubs, strip joints, dive bars, and drug dens through the artist’s eyes.
“The nighttime work was a big part of who Arlene was as an artist and a person,” says gallerist Daniel Cooney, who first began showing Gottfried’s work in the seminal monograph, Sometimes Overwhelming (powerHouse Books) in 2014. “She spent decades exploring the nooks and crannies of New York: nightlife, street life and domestic life.”
Included in the exhibition are a series of never-before-seen photographs Gottfried took on the Lower East Side, documenting the heroin epidemic that swarmed through the city during the ’70s. “I honestly think the Heroin work was Arlene’s attempt to understand her friend, the poet and playwright Miguel Piñero,” Cooney says.
Heroin Series, late 1970’s
GG’s Barnum Room, Times Square, 1979
“Arlene was eternally curious about people. She had a lot of chutzpah and determination. She always faced life directly and with empathy for her subjects. She never looked away or ignored, ridiculed or judged. She relates to the people on a very human level, and approached them with honesty and humour.”
No matter where Gottfried travelled, she always looked her subjects in the eye, and they responded in kin. “Arlene got all these photographs of people really uninhibited,” Cooney says.
“All the people in her photographs are looking at her and acknowledging that she’s there. She’s not sneaking around. She had an understated presence that allowed her to be in truly gritty places where people got down and dirty, and created pictures that spoke for her.”
Gottfried played it close to the vest. “Arlene didn’t like to talk about herself and I think she felt overwhelmed talking her about her work,” Cooney says. “It was difficult to get to know her but I did get to know her through her work – that’s where she revealed things about herself. That’s an indicator of a true artist. See her work and you will know her.”
Trapeze Artists, GG’s Barnum Room, Times Square, 1979
El Barrio, late 1970’s
Times Square, late 1970’s
Dance A Thon, late 1970’s
Young Man In Bed, late 1970’s
Heroin Series, Man With Beer And Cigarette, late 1970’s
Arlene Gottfried: After Dark is on view at Daniel Cooney Fine Art in New York until October 26, 2019.
Follow Miss Rosen on Twitter.
Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
You might like
A stark, confronting window into the global cocaine trade
Sangre Blanca — Mads Nissen’s new book is a close-up look at various stages of the drug’s journey, from production to consumption, and the violence that follows wherever it goes.
Written by: Isaac Muk
“Like skating an amphitheatre”: 50 years of the South Bank skatepark, in photos
Skate 50 — A new exhibition celebrates half a century of British skateboarding’s spiritual centre. Noah Petersons traces the Undercroft’s history and enduring presence as one of the world’s most iconic spots.
Written by: Noah Petersons
The utopic vision of Black liberation in ’60s & ’70s jazz
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound — As Pan-African optimism spread across the world in the postcolonial era, Black-led record labels gave artists space to express themselves away from the mainstream. A new book collates 500 groundbreaking albums and their covers.
Written by: Miss Rosen
“I didn’t care if I got sacked”: Sleazenation’s Scott King in conversation with Radge’s Meg McWilliams
Radgenation — For our 20th Anniversary Issue, Huck’s editor Josh Jones sits down with the legendary art director and the founder of a new magazine from England’s northeast to talk about taking risks, crafting singular covers and disrupting the middle class dominance of the creative industries.
Written by: Josh Jones
Free-spirited, otherworldly portraits of Mexico City’s queer youth
Birds — Pieter Henket’s new collaborative photobook creates a stage for CDMX’s LGBTQ+ community to express themselves without limitations, styling themselves with wild outfits that subvert gender and tradition.
Written by: Isaac Muk
The suave style and subtle codes of gay San Francisco in the ’70s
Seminal Works — Hal Fischer’s new photobook explores the photographer’s archive, in which he documented the street fashion and culture of the city post-Gay Liberation, and pre-AIDS pandemic.
Written by: Miss Rosen
