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April 22, 2022 • Schneps Media
BY BOB KRASNER
There’s a chance that if you
were hanging around downtown
NYC in the late 70’s/
early 80’s with a camera, you’ve
got some cool shots of your friends
that are sitting in a scrapbook
somewhere. Bobby Grossman certainly
does, but his friends were
Chris Stein, Debbie Harry, Jean-
Michel Basquiat, David Byrne,
Andy Warhol — you get the idea.
Taken mostly between 1976
and 1983, the silver gelatin prints
on the wall in his new solo show
“Low Fidelity” at the Howl! Arts/
Howl! Archive are a look into a
somewhat unseen stash, as the
images have not been as widely
disseminated as those by some
of his peers. About 25% of the
pics on the walls have never been
published before.
Most of the images were taken
not for assignments or even documentary
purposes, but simply
because Grossman liked taking
pics of his world, sometimes using
photography as an ice-breaker.
“I am basically a shy person,”
he admits. “It was easier to meet
people with a camera.”
After studying art at RISD,
Grossman landed in the Chelsea
Hotel in room 911, across from
the legendary composer Virgil
Thomson. Working for his father’s
shirt factory gave him an income
which he supplemented with illustration
assignments from publications
such as Rock Magazine,
Rolling Stone, Soho Weekly News
and a few “girlie mags” before going
on to become illustrator Richard
Bernstein’s assistant.
But “going out in the evening
became more important,” he
mused. “I was at the right place at
the right time. I feel very fortunate
to have been there – little by little
I managed to meet everyone that I
wanted to meet.”
While Grossman had a feeling
that his images had some value,
it was seminal hip-hop artist Fab
5 Freddy who drove the point
home. “What you’re doing is very
important,” Freddy would remind
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
him. “And he was right —
look at the archive that I’ve got
40 years later.”
Looking at that work hung at
Howl!, one is engaged in “an intimate,
amazing journey through
NYC’s underground art and music
scene,” according to Cynthia
Sley, founding member of the
Bush Tetras.
Godlis, the photographer
known for his iconic late night
available light images taken in an
out of CBGB’s, appreciates the
completely different approach
taken by Grossman, who almost
always used a flash.
“His quick effortless shooting
style was really an artist’s statement
in itself,” he opines. “He shot
pictures like his life was changed
by rock and roll.”
Whitney Newman, an artist
who came from Atlanta to attend
the opening, noted that “these images
were born here and it’s like
Flash from the past
East Village photographer Bobby Grossman brings back
the vintage NYC art and music scene in new exhibit
Top left: Bobby Grossman at Bleecker and Bowery , with the
Shepard Fairey mural that uses his Debbie Harry photo as source
material. Above: Graphic Designer/ Artist Marlene Weisman getting
her copy of “Bande A Part “, a collection of vintage downtown
NYC photographs, signed by Grossman. Left: Photographer
Dustin Pittman, left, snapped pics and reminisced with Grossman.