THE UNDERGROUND ARCHIVE

      Welcome to THE UNDERGROUND ARCHIVIST, a developing web page where I will be displaying and explaining about my documentary photo work in NYC from the 70's to the present, photos I took in the meat packing district, Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Tribeca, and at many, many other parts of the city, using a well worn Nikkormat camera, lots of hand loaded 35mm Tri-x film, and converting parts of my home as a photo lab, to develop the film in my bathroom and print thousands of images with a beseler 23c enlarger in a darkroom I made out my bedroom.
      In creating this site I wish to preserve and share images and efemora of the underground clubs, events, parties, and social groups that existed in the shadows and hidden spaces of New York City. So much of that underground life has been erased, glossed over, ignored and simple paved over, that I believed that it is time to open my personal archive of images to the public, so they can see for themselves how these alternate social groups gathered, socialized, and celibrated their lives and passions. These images are a small window of how my life took me into these worlds, and and the wonderful humanity that we enjoyed in these secret and hidden places. I was lucky enough and skilled enough to be able to be permitted to go into these spaces, to be welcomed into these private worlds, and take photos of its detizens at play and at work, living their lives in front of my camera lense.
      I believe my photography shows a unique vision of long lost club scene, street life, and the underground S&M and Fetish societies that florished and grew in the wild and crazy days of life in nyc in the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Many people discount the reality of those days, ignoreing the depth and power of our lives. like the scene in the wizard of oz, we are asked not to look at the real people playing behind the curtain, but to look at cheap illusions and distortions presented as the past. My photos show a window into that past, a world where people had fun playing on the edge, playing