Vibrant photos of New York’s Downtown performance scene
- Text by Miss Rosen
- Photography by Andé Whyland
Photographer Andé Whyland arrived in New York’s East Village in 1979, back when the downtown neighbourhood was a bohemian outpost. She started hanging out at local hot spots like Club 57 and the Pyramid, documenting a new generation of artists, musicians, and performers including RuPaul, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy, and John Sex who redefined 1980s nightlife.
“I started going there, meeting people, and photographing my friends,” says Whyland. “New York gave me direction but I didn’t think of it as a career; this was my contribution to them. I’ve had a lot of opportunities to share them with people but they just sat in boxes because they were slides.”
In 2020, Whyland revisited her archive for Shots: 1980–1986, a hypnotic trip back to pre-gentrification New York. Once the seal was broken, Whyland returned to her archive to unearth an electric collection of the downtown performance scene as it made its way from the clubs to the parks, streets, and beaches.
With her new book, Balloons and Feathers, Whyland and designer John Boyer bring together photographs made over the past 25 years at Wigstock, Drag March, Coney Island Mermaid Parade, and Howl Festival, as well as the Slipper Room, the legendary Lower East Side all-inclusive cabaret.
“In New York, you’re surrounded by constant details because things are going on all the time,” says Whyland who revels in the unexpected encounters that can only happen in a place where anything is possible.
Her glittering photographs are filled characters drawn from imagination run wild, a nod to her longtime love of costume, colour, and insouciance. The result is a carnivalesque haze of drag, burlesque, and masquerade in its many-splendoured forms, from a backyard country-western party in New Jersey to the Moko Jumbie Stilt Walkers at the New York Botanical Garden.
There is a tender familiarity to Whyland’s portraits that have the feel of a family album or community yearbook. “I’ve been going to the Mermaid Parade for many years. In fact, I think I even went to the first one in 1983,” she reveals. “Our friend Wendy Wild, who was very much a part of Club 57 and Pyramid, was one of the first mermaids at the parade.”
With Balloons and Feathers, Whyland comes full circle, celebrating the evolution of the city’s avant-garde scene as it has risen from the New York underground to dominate American pop culture in the new century.
“[New York is] each person’s dream come true if you have the courage to live it,” World Famous *BOB* says in the book. “To anyone considering the move to NYC here’s the truth: NYC is great no matter what time you get there and the moment you arrive washed up on its shores that’s when (for you) it all begins.”
Buy your copy of Huck 81 here.
Enjoyed this article? Follow Huck on Instagram.
Support stories like this by becoming a member of Club Huck.
Latest on Huck

Maryam El Gardoum is breaking new shores for Morocco’s indigenous surfers
The Amazigh Atlantic — Through her groundbreaking career and popular surf school, the five-time Moroccan champion is helping women find their places in the waves.
Written by: Sam Haddad

Youth violence’s rise is deeply concerning, but mass hysteria doesn’t help
Safe — On Knife Crime Awareness Week, writer, podcaster and youth worker Ciaran Thapar reflects on the presence of violent content online, growing awareness about the need for action, and the two decades since Saul Dibb’s Bullet Boy.
Written by: Ciaran Thapar

Volcom teams up with Bob Mollema for the latest in its Featured Artist Series
True to This — The boardsports lifestyle brand will host an art show in Biarritz to celebrate the Dutch illustrators’ second capsule collection.
Written by: Huck

A visual trip through 100 years of New York’s LGBTQ+ spaces
Queer Happened Here — A new book from historian and writer Marc Zinaman maps scores of Manhattan’s queer venues and informal meeting places, documenting the city’s long LGBTQ+ history in the process.
Written by: Isaac Muk

Nostalgic photos of everyday life in ’70s San Francisco
A Fearless Eye — Having moved to the Bay Area in 1969, Barbara Ramos spent days wandering its streets, photographing its landscape and characters. In the process she captured a city in flux, as its burgeoning countercultural youth movement crossed with longtime residents.
Written by: Miss Rosen

Tony Njoku: ‘I wanted to see Black artists living my dream’
What Made Me — In this series, we ask artists and rebels about the forces and experiences that shaped who they are. Today, it’s avant-garde electronic and classical music hybridist Tony Njoku.
Written by: Tony Njoku