A New York That No Longer Exists (63 photos)

Photographer Arlene Gottfried





Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, photographer Arlene Gottfried captured the wild city of New York in all its glory: from the muscular men of Brighton Beach to the fashionable men of Coney Island and the glamorous rockers of Madison Square Garden.

These documentary street photographs capture the strange symbolism and unique moments of New Yorkers' lives. They live beyond the banal, transforming city streets into living theater. "My mother told me, 'Arlene, you don't just wander around,' and then I started wandering with a camera because it gave my wanderings a little more meaning."

Over time, Gottfried's visual diary acquired additional significance, becoming a relic preserving a New York that, in many ways, no longer exists. Her images chronicle the transformation of the metropolis, captured not by a superficial gaze, but by one that encompasses its infinite facets.