Robert Carrithers

The Downtown Luminaries

Published now "The Downtown Luminaries" 

ROBERT CARRITHERS CAPTURED, ALMOST BY DINT OF THAT QUIET STRENGTH, SOME OF THE MOST DYNAMIC PEOPLE OF THE CLUB 57 SCENE. HE WAS ONE OF THE FEW WHO HAD A PRESCIENT IDEA THAT THESE FACES WERE WORTH KEEPING TRACK OF: KEITH HARING, WENDY WILD, JOHN SEX, ANN MAGNUSON, KITTY BROPHY, PETER SMITH, KENNY SCHARF, CHARLOTTE SLIVKA. - ALEXA HUNTER

Photobook „THE DOWNTOWN LUMINARIES“ by Robert Carrithers. Published by PogoBooks Berlin.
May, 2018

Once upon a time in a place that does not exist anymore, I attempted to create a book. It was not just any old sort of book it was a magical one! At least it was for me. This place was 1980s New York City and I was in the right place at the right time. I lived on East 10th Street between 2nd and 1st Avenue. There were aggressive drug dealers on my block dealing their wares. It was dangerous to walk east of 1st Avenue because of the desperate junkies and criminals that inhabited the blocks of collapsed burnt out tenement buildings. I would go to sleep at night hearing gunshots and screams. It was a jungle out there. Show your fear and the animals will eat you, but I loved it! It was the most exciting time of my life. Why? Because in New York City at that time, anything was possible and you could be who you wanted to be. You could reinvent yourself and become performers with names like John Sex and Wendy Wild! Anyone from wherever in the world could come to New York City and do their dream, whatever it was, from being an artist to owning a shop. You did not have to work all of the time to pay your rent and you could put time and energy into your art and being who YOU wanted to be.

There was a creative laboratory called Club 57 on 57 St. Marks Place near where I had lived. Creative people who came to New York at the same time I did were drawn to this place like a magnet. Every night we created something different from a one-night art show to film screenings to music happenings to wild theme parties. Keith Haring had his first art show there, He painted on the walls for one night and the next day it was painted over for the next night’s happening. We did not compete with each other; we inspired and helped each other. I recognized the fact that there were very special personalities there. I started to organize to photograph them and interview 57 of them. I wanted to make a book about this called “57 Varieties”. I actually did complete the book. I put together a prototype of it with color Xerox photos and then typed out interviews. I had to sublet my 10th street flat for a year to go away to Berlin and I left it with a friend who I had trusted. I came back a year later and had found out he lost it. I was destroyed by this and just gave up on the idea, but now more than thirty years later in 2018 we now have the reality of this book, plus an exhibition at the New York Museum of Modern Art about Club 57 and it’s influence on culture.

Have you ever thought what it would be like for you now to have a conversation with your younger-self? Can you even imagine what that would be like? I was certainly a completely different person in 1980’s New York. This place does not exist anymore. I do not exist as I was then, but let us imagine that this character they called Bob (I prefer to be called Robert now) does exist. I will attempt to channel the spirit of Bob and he will take you on a spiritual journey through these photographs of the special personalities that inhabited this world from a long time ago. Let us go on a journey together through the New York ‘80s with Bob. We will also have some surprise guests from that time joining us for the journey – Robert Carrithers

This book also features Berlin artist Magdalena Wysocka completing a circle from N.Y. '80s to the present time.

Berlin, May 2018.
PogoBooks Verlag, Hauptstraße 13, 10317 Berlin www.pogobooks.de • [email protected]

MoMA: Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983

For those that do not know, click on the highlighted names of people or places if you want more information about them. I am very proud to have my photographs in the MoMA New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition "Club 57: Film, Performance and Art in the East Village, 1978-1983". It opened October 31rst 2017 and closes April 1st 2018. I attended the opening and it was a pleasure to see all the people who I knew from Club 57 back in the '80s. You can see the nine Club 57 photographers on monitors before you go into the exhibition. I am honoured to be with these talented photographers. The photos and images above of the monitors and the entrance of the opening of the show is taken by one of the exhibition photographer's the talented April Palmieri. I want to thank the curators for their great hard work for putting all of this together: Ron Magliozzi, Sophie Cavoulacos and guest curator Ann Magnuson. The other photographers with me in the exhibition is Lina Bertucci, Katherine Dumas, April Palmieri, Anthony Scibelli, Joseph Skodzinski, Harvey Wang, Ande Whyland and Christina Yuin. The following is a description of the exhibition by MoMA: 

The East Village of the 1970s and 1980s continues to thrive in the global public’s imagination. Located in the basement of a Polish Church at 57 St. Marks Place, Club 57 (1978–83) began as a no-budget venue for music and film exhibitions, and quickly took pride of place in a constellation of countercultural venues in downtown New York fueled by low rents, the Reagan presidency, and the desire to experiment with new modes of art, performance, fashion, music, and exhibition. A center of creative activity in the East Village, Club 57 is said to have influenced virtually every club that came in its wake.

Club 57: Film, Performance, and Art in the East Village, 1978–1983 is the first major exhibition to fully examine the scene-changing, interdisciplinary life of this seminal downtown New York alternative space. The exhibition will tap into the legacy of Club 57’s founding curatorial staff—film programmers Susan Hannaford and Tom Scully, exhibition organizer Keith Haring, and performance curator Ann Magnuson—to examine how the convergence of film, video, performance, art, and curatorship in the club environment of New York in the 1970s and 1980s became a model for a new spirit of interdisciplinary endeavor. Responding to the broad range of programming at Club 57, the exhibition will present their accomplishments across a range of disciplines—from film, video, performance, and theater to photography, painting, drawing, printmaking, collage, zines, fashion design, and curating. Building on extensive research and oral history, the exhibition features many works that have not been exhibited publicly since the 1980s.

CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE

CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE An Anthology curated by Robert Carrithers & Louis Armand (Prague: Litteraria Pragensia) CITY PRIMEVAL: NEW YORK BERLIN PRAGUE is a personal journey through time in each city told by writers, artists and photographers from each city. Robert Carrithers acts as a tour guide throughout the book with stories, photographs and art. The book was published in September 2017. We had book releases with performance, music, readings and slide show lectures by photographers to bring the book alive. The New York book release was November 10th at the Howl Happening, November 30th November 30th at Kino Central and eschloraque in Berlin and at Prague Design Week in Prague December 2nd. These special events brought the book alive in all three cities.

CITY PRIMEVAL is a constellation of personal documentaries of place & time by key contemporary writers, poets, musicians, designers, filmmakers, photographers, artists, editors, performers from within the New York, Berlin & Prague underground scenes from the late 1970s to the present; from New York Post-Punk & No Wave, to the fall of the Berlin Wall & Reunification, to the Velvet Revolution & the Prague Renaissance; including contributions by Bruno Adams, Penny Arcade, Louis Armand, Dale Ashmon, J.Jackie Baier, Markéta Baňková, Varhan Orchestrovič Bauer, Lina Bertucci, Gaby Bíla-Günther Mykel Board, Victor Bockris, Christoph Brandl, Gary Ray Bugarcic, Robert Carrithers, David Černý, Roman Černý, Michal Cihlář, Antonio Cossa, William Coupon, Max Dax, Christoph Dreher, Sara Driver, Glen Emery, Vincent Farnsworth, Nat Finkelstein, Roxanne Fontana, Thor Garcia, Susanne Glück, Carola Goellner, Anthony Haden Guest, Carl Haber, Jere Harshman, Henry Hills, Nhoah Hoena, Michael Holman, John Hood, Chris Hughes, Jolana Izbická, Timo Jacobs, Bethany Eden Jacobson, Tobiáš Jirous, Bettina Köster, Julius Klein, Hubert Ketzschmar, Jaromír Lelek, Lydia Lunch, Rinat Magsumov, Peter Milne, Steve Morell, Mona Mur, Julia Murakami, Shalom Neuman, Paul Pacey, Puma Perl, Rudolf Piper, Rudi Protrudi, Mark Reeder, Marcia Resnik, Ingrid Rudefors, Ilse Ruppert, Šimon Šafránek, Honza Sakař, Oliver Schütz, Marcia Schofield, Tom Scully, Semra Sevin, Phil Shoenfelt, Peter Smith, Azalea So Sweet, Mark Steiner, Kenton Turk, Andre Werner, Ian Wright, Nick Zedd, Dave Zijlstra, Richard & Winter Zoli, Miron Zownir.

Newly discovered '80s N.Y., Club 57, Danceteria, Wendy Wild & John Sex and Old Flame photos

I have recently discovered a lot of photos from New York that I had put away and forgot all about. Actually for me at this point in my life it is a perfect time for me to take a journey to this distant time of magic for me before I take a new journey into the future with some specific creative projects that I have in mind. It is cleaning my closet and finding these gems and jewels. Some of these photos are of performances of some amazing people who are no longer with us, but they are still very much part of me and who I am. Other photos are portraits or special snapshots of these (for me) magical creatures. I have also included some fashion photos that I took for the London fashion house Demob which are quite nice. After those photos, well, a few photos might offend some people, some specific people and I am sorry for that if that is the case. The last photos are of lost loves that meant something to me, maybe more than what was imagined at the time. Join me in this journey if you want. I will do some writing for each group of these photos. I will be going through some more photos in my closet soon and if I am lucky I will find some more.

These photos were taken at the Club 57 benefit party at Danceteria. Club 57 fell on hard times, back in the '80s other creative clubs supported each other. Danceteria (for those that do not know) was four floors of nonstop happenings and during the summer the rooftop would be open with the view of Manhattan surrounding you. Click on the name Danceteria and the other names here in these postings for further information about the subjects. These three photos are of John Sex performing at the benefit. John Sex was a singer, performer, a damn good dancer, loved performing with his python snake and with his singers The Bodacious TaTa’s. (Wendy Wild, April Palmieri, Micki French, Myra Schiller and others) He was one of my favorite people. He was really fun to be with. 

Peter Kwaloff hanging out as Miss Thang.

Two young girls hanging out at Danceteria. I don't know who the girl is on the right, but the one on the left is Debi Mazar. She went on to become quite a successful actress, jumping from music videos by Madonna to a starring role in Martin Scorsese's film Goodfellas and she has just kept on working in films and TV ever since. She is presently is in a supporting role in the popular TV show Entourage.   

Fashion designer icon Katy K basking in the limelight (not the club) at Danceteria.

The Club 57 and Danceteria go-go girls dancing the night away. I think there's a go-go boy there too. In fact I know there is! And a pirate go-go girl with a hook for an arm. All the other go-go girls were very friendly with her.

In the photo above and below, Ann Magnuson sings with Kenny Scharf with the wild performance artist Ammo doing an interpretative dance. Whatever happened to Ammo?

Photos above and below, the one and only The Sick Fucks performing at Danceteria.

Elvis (played by the one and only, the talented J.P. Dougherty, who went on to star in some great shows on Broadway, such as Les Miserables, Hairspray etc.) comes out of hiding and performs at the Club 57 benefit at Danceteria and is worshipped by John Sex, Scott Wittman, Vicky Schrott and Tracey Berg.

Wendy Wild becomes the mushroom queen and performs with her band The Mad Violets along with Dino Sorbello.

The fun after party photos: John Reade, Ammo, John Sex, Vicky Schrott and Kenny Scharf.

John Reade, Ammo and John Sex. Ammo was a mischievous imp! An imp is a mythological being similar to a fairy or demon, frequently described in folklore and superstition.

It must have been a successful night indeed because here we have Danceteria owner and host Rudolf singing! I never remembered him singing ever before. Standing next to Rudolf is Scott Wittman. He produced and directed the Club 57 benefit that night and he certainly seems pleased by the event and hopefully with Rudolf's crooning as well. 

A very young Wendy Wild! This is the first photo that I took of Wendy. I remember it well.

Ammo performing at Club 57 at a night he created called "Universal Interaction". Everyone who attended the event had to perform.

Jimmy Joe was Club 57 regular, bartended and played music there. He was in the house band with Kai Eric.

Snooky and Tish at Club 57.

Kim Davis with Eric Goode and Shawn Hausman at Club 57. Eric and Shawn were the owners of the popular themed nightclub at that time called Area. I don't know who the woman eating in the background is, but she sure looks hungry!

This is not a product placement ad. I did not get paid for it. This is Wendy Wild at the Grand Old Opry, a country and western theme night at Club 57.

I did a series of fashion shoots in New York for Demob, a London based fashion house. (Thanks to Jon Mole Baker) The dapper John the Greek looking happier than ever strolling down 42nd Street with the incredible beauties Carmel, Mandy and Michelle Young. 

I had to include the above photo because of the expression on the face of the man on the left side walking.

The lovely Pilar Limosner hanging with style on the water tower on the roof of Danceteria.

Mandy always looked good....

Carmel, John the Greek, Michelle Young and the Empire State Building on the rooftop of Danceteria.

Carmel with the New York City Public Library lion.

A photo shoot promoting the Psychedelic Weekend at a club that was called The Cavern. The most popular psychedelic garage bands and people in New York got together for this photo shoot. I shot these two photos in front of the famous (at the time) psychedelic painted building on East 6th Street where all the Indian restaurants are. It was a building that was painted in the sixties at the height of psychedelia. It lasted quite awhile, but is no longer there now. I do not remember all of these people in the photo, but I remember most of them. There is Rudi Protrudi and Deb O'Nair from the band The Fuzztones, Wendy Wild and some members of the Mad Violets, master of ceremonies of the Psychedelic Weekend and DJ Tom Scully, Rene Laigo, Viva and a girl named The Runt. If anyone can help me with the others or if I made a mistake, let me know.

Now we are going into the naughty section of this posting! I hope you like naughty! If you don't like naughty, scroll quickly down because you might get impure thoughts. How to explain these photos? Through a friend, I got a photography job to somehow capture the downtown East Village scene in an erotic or sexual way for the New York infamous porn magazine: Screw Magazine. First of all I want to say, I never did and I do not do porn photography of any kind. Screw Magazine was famous for porn, but it was also well-known for their strong political views and extreme humor. I got together with Wendy Wild and John Sex and told them about this. I asked them if they had any ideas for this article. We decided to try to make a porn parody. New York City has garbage cans out on the street and back then people threw out perfectly good furniture and all sorts of usable items that people could find and use in their apartments. Once in awhile you would find something unique and special. As we were trying to think of how to do this photo session, John spied a thrown out mannequin on the street outside of a shop. A very special mannequin indeed!

What made this mannequin special was, for whatever reason, this particular mannequin had it's mouth open with it's tongue sticking out. The mannequin magically told us what to do for this photo session. We found out it was a she and we had a lot of fun with her. These are some of the less explicit photos. The mannequin got really carried away with us and we had to end the photo session and before we knew it we were seduced by her throughout the night. We all passed out in a state of exhaustion. When Wendy, John and I woke up the next morning, the mannequin was gone and we never saw her again, but here are the results of some of the photos. Screw Magazine was very pleased with these results. The above photo of Wendy reminds me of some famous burlesque queen. The three photos below were the beginning of the debauchery with the mannequin! I have never had one like her ever again!

This is a self-portrait of me in my hallway. After the mannequin experience I temporarily turned into a Druid, but it did not last long.

I found these photos of Lynn. Lynn was a woman in New York who I had a mad crush on. I was smitten. I was too young and shy. I felt I re-found her in the future with these photos and reflect back on the past with the experience that I have accumulated and I want to time travel to.... well, I don't know. I would bring some viagra in any case. I wonder what she is doing now and if she reads this I hope she is not offended. I just looked at the last photo of her here and the key says it all, but like many things with time I lost that key.

I normally wouldn't put a photo of me here with someone, but it better illustrates the photos below. These are not just snapshots. This is someone who made my heart beat faster, but made me crazy, Nina. I will explain in the last photo why these are not snapshots.

Why are these not snapshots? This is Nina with Charlotte Scully. I was seeing Nina at that time and I guess we were babysitting for Tom and Sibylle Scully. The contrast of Nina and Charlotte has some connection somehow for me with the eyes and the color red. The photo below are eyes looking down at me from the past. I have no idea where Nina is and what she is doing. I would like to know, but it is interesting that I know Charlotte and I am in contact with her. She is living in Paris and working as a make-up artist for film and television. Life keeps moving and changing. We live many lives in our one life and there are so many chapters. I am ready for the next chapter in my life.

 

New York Portraits 2010: Lucy

This is Lucy! Lucy has a bar in the East Village on Avenue A between St. Marks Place and 9th Street.... 135 Avenue A to be exact! A real dive bar!!! The real thing! It is just a long bar, a room with tables, a pool table and a juke box. Oh, yes, the stinky toilets too! There used be quite a few Polish dive bars in the East Village and this is the survivor. So many things have changed in New York, especially the East Village! I remember going into Lucy's bar in the 80's in New York. Cheap drinks and friendly Lucy greeting you as you came into the door. If you had several drinks, she would always give you one free. I had many a late night there. It was always a good place to go for a talk and a drink. If we had a problem, it was the place to go and talk, usually it always lasted longer than what we wanted and it was 4 am before we knew it. Lucy has been an East Village institution as long as I could remember. I was happy to see her behind the bar, full of energy and talking to the customers as usual. Lots of things always change in New York, but then again, there are some things that remain. Lucy must be in her 80's. I hope she keeps going strong. Here she is, as usual every night in New York, talking to a familiar bar customer. Good ol' Lucy!

SAMO/Jean-Michel Basquiat

When I first moved to New York I would see these strange funny phrases painted on walls ending with the tag SAMO©. I was walking home one late night and saw these two guys marking the walls and finishing with the tag SAMO© These two young guys both introduced themselves as SAMO. One of them kept on saying he was the real SAMO. I accepted him as SAMO. I met him many times after that. He was barely making ends meet and I took him out for a late breakfast several times. I enjoyed talking to him. He was funny and full of life. I didn't see him for awhile.

Not too soon after, I started to see the words "SAMO IS DEAD" written on the walls. I didn't see SAMO for a long time. Late one night, I was walking the same way home and I saw someone walking towards me, who looked exactly like SAMO. He was very well dressed and full of confidence. I called out his name and asked him how he was doing. He said that his name was not SAMO and introduced himself as Jean-Michel Basquiat. We shook hands and said goodbye. This photo was taken after SAMO/Jean-Michel Basquiat made some color xeroxes of some of his art work. He gave me several of the xeroxes. I have no idea what I did with them.

Wendy Wild 7A Cafe NYC

This is the last photo that I could remember taking of Wendy Wild in New York. Maybe this was taken around Halloween, maybe not. I do not recall this devilish fellow, but for some reason I remember that this photo was taken at 7A Cafe on 7th Street and Avenue A. I am sorry for the bad quality of this photo. I had to scan this photo because I could not find the negative. I will have to put up a better quality one when I have the chance.

Quentin Crisp

Quentin Crisp, (1908–1999) was an English writer, most notably for his work the Naked Civil Servant. Someone who knew a bit about wit. I took this photo after an interview I did with him over lunch. This is not the original photo that I used actually. I have to find the negatives of that time.

Punk Lolita

I saw this punk Lolita outside of the Mudd Club and started snapping away. I wonder what she looks like now!

Maggie and Michelle 2

Maggie and Michelle hanging out on Pitt street, Lower East Side, New York City.