“Everybody has a life. Everybody has a sensibility. Everybody has yearnings. Everybody has a cause to plead. And everybody has a camera. It takes an intelligence as bold as Amy Arbus to turn these universal commonplaces not just into works of art, but works of insight.” - Richard Avedon
Five hundred of Amy Arbus’s impromptu, edgy, and adventurous portraits appeared in her Village Voice style feature, “On the Street,” between 1980 and 1990. These black-and-white images captured New York City’s most fashion-forward residents. For the first time since that decade of self-exploration, these photographs are being revisited. On the Street is a collection of more than 70 of the most influential images, those that lend a voice to an era when individuality and self expression were fighting for breathing room in a culture that valued economics over creativity.
Arbus’s lens captured New York’s most influential style-makers: The Clash on the set of Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy; Madonna the same week her single “Everybody” hit the charts; Anna Sui; Joey Arias; Phoebe Lčgére; as well as performance artists, costume designers, shop owners, musicians, make-up artists, graffiti artists, and urban hipsters.
Renowned author A.M. Homes offers a marvelous introductory essay that delves into the social and cultural environments surrounding this stunning collection of photographs.
