NYC's East Village and LES in the 1980’s

Many will argue that the East Village and Lower East Side are two of the same, and there is certainly merit to that point. At one time, the two geographies were home to the multitudes of immigrants who came to our shores for a better and safer life, my family included. In 1955 the Third Ave El was taken down and soon after the area east of 3rd Avenue seemed a lot more inviting than it had before, and it also offered a cheaper alternative to living in its western neighbor, Greenwich Village. Real estate agents were quick to delineate the area with a more inviting moniker than the Lower East Side. And so, the East Village was born.

I grew up in Greenwich Village but went to high school in the heart of the Lower East Side on Essex Street. I spent my teen years hanging out down there as well as on St Marks Place, which in the late sixties had become the main drag for clothing shops, book and record stores, and other establishments representative of those hippier times. I spent my weekends sneaking in, bumming tickets to the Fillmore East and Electric Circus or panhandling on Astor Place next to the Alamo Cube so I could buy some smokes or the latest Zap Comic featuring R. Crumb. In 1979 I moved to a railroad flat on 1st Ave just north of St Marks Place. It had peeling paint, a tub in the kitchen, roaches galore, and floors that slanted in different directions depending on which room you were standing in. And it was all mine.

I bartended at night at the St. Marks Bar & Grill and by day (and some evenings) I would photograph the neighborhood.

The photos of burnt out buildings and dystopian landscapes of Alphabet City were taken from a bike I rode on for safety's sake, the area a dramatic contrast to the gentrified and populated neighborhood it is today. I didn’t try to capture any particular scene, I wanted to capture the neighborhood as I saw it, and in most cases, as I lived it.

I shot most of it on Kodachrome and some B&W film.

I was also lucky enough to be present for events like the filming of Ragtime on East 11th Street which had been converted into a historical recreation of its 1890 counterpart. The filming of the Rolling Stones’ Waiting on a Friend video was done just outside, and then inside St. Marks Bar & Grill where I was working. I was in the video and then got to see and hear them jam right after the filming was done. I was about two feet from Jagger and Richards, an unforgettable memory for me that still makes for good stories all these years later.

I hope you enjoy the photos as much as I did taking them, and living them. Custom prints are available, you can read more about my process and ordering here.