I lived in Manhattan from 1977 to 1989, when New York was a much different place. It was a good time to be an artist in the City - rents were cheap, raw loft space available for studios, and there were plenty of casual jobs to pay the bills in between art gigs.
Even more important, there was a rich, archaic, aboriginal culture to document. I was always wandering around with a camera and a couple of lenses, photographing obscure things that caught my eye.
I was looking for the gritty edge of real life, which was always being obscured by the predominant flash and glitz of the uptown culture makers.
Here's a few of the places I found then, before Manhattan was transformed into a soulless disneyland.
