Underground Photography

June 21st, 2023

Before my career in TV and film, I was a photographer.

In 1991, I auditioned for LaGuardia Music and Art High School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, right down the block from Julliard, and behind Lincoln Center. In the 80's there was a TV series and a movie called, "Fame" which was about the students of the school. It was a different building in Midtown, but I thought it was a good representation of teenage native New Yorkers. So I auditioned for both the music and the art departments at LaGuardia. For the music audition I played piano. This included a few pieces I had learned from studying at Turtle Bay Music School on East 52nd Street, as well as a medley I made up which combined Korsakov's 1888 composition, "Scheherazade ," and Led Zeppelin's 1970 song, "Stairway to Heaven.” For the art department audition, I brought in a portfolio of different mediums - painting, sketches, charcoal. I was accepted to major in both departments at LaGuardia but I had to choose one. I chose art. And that sent me on the trajectory of darkroom photography - specifically black and white 35mm film photography.

Once I learned the skill of darkroom photography I took my camera downtown to The Village. It was a world of artists, musicians, writers, political activists, teenage runaways, squatters, and punks. I loved photographing them. Just being in that atmosphere introduced me to so many colorful locals that hung out in Washington Square Park and Tompkins Square Park. It seemed I was entering a time capsule - the 50's beatnik, the 60's rocknroll, and the 70's punk era all rolled into one.  Even when I visit there today, with all the changes in the backdrop of the streets surrounding them, I can still find some of the same characters roaming the streets and they look exactly the same. Frozen in time.

It was a fascinating world because they all really seemed to follow their own rules there.  That was very exciting to me - it was liberating and free. I shot a lot of musicians and performing artists and at first I labelled my photography, RocknRoll Photography. But it was soon titled, Underground Photography, and subtitled, “photography of the subconscious.”

I was doing grassroots advertising and promotion by wheat-pasting large prints of my photographs onto the sides of buildings and billboards all over the East Village. I essentially created an Open Air Gallery exhibition. It was part gallery exhibit and part advertisement for my new website. I designed and printed up business cards and flyers and put them everywhere. All very 1990’s grassroots.

Years later I published a book of my photographs of some of the unique souls I had the privilege to capture on film. For the book I wrote something that I still believe today. Here is what I wrote: "People who in some way go against the grain make the most interesting subjects to shoot. They are at once vulnerable and brave because they're always exposed in their communities as Outsiders and yet have the courage to push forward with their beliefs despite societal, cultural, political, religious, or familial pressures. They are what is beautiful and unique about life. They are rich, soulful, and often misunderstood people who stretch the perimeters of acceptance and pave the way for future generations to potentially create a new norm."