The Ice Palace was primarily a gay disco and Cherry Grove was a gay community there. I had heard for months about this club in the Cherry Grove section called The Ice Palace, and how it was, in many people’s opinion, the first Disco in the US, or at least the East Coast of the US. One of my enduring memories of this period was when I was on the ferry to Fire Island off the coast of Long Island in New York. Q: What’s your most enduring memory of the period?
I think this was because people went to the disco to “see and be seen.” Also, this was long before the cell phone camera and having your picture taken was still much of a novelty then. I never once had anybody stop me from taking a photo. Q: Nobody seemed bothered by you taking their photos, why do you think that was? I needed all of my brain cells to be intact when I was working at the clubs. It was difficult enough in those days with film cameras to shoot in mostly dark rooms with moving people and flashing lights. I knew if I started giving in to the temptations that surrounded me I would be very disappointed with the evening’s shoot. When I decided to pursue Disco as a personal photography project I took it very seriously. Cocaine and “poppers” were very popular at the discos. Q: Those were heady times, were you tempted by any of it, and what stopped you putting the camera down? There was an attitude of acceptance and openness to freedom of expression within the disco that drew the creative and diverse crowd night after night.
Women’s liberation, Racial Equality Movement… all of these people needed a place to let go of their daily frustrations and submit to the party atmosphere of the disco.
The Gay Liberation movement was in full swing, still propelled by the Stonewall riots in the West Village in the late 60’s. It was also the time before AIDS was announced as an epidemic, formally called the “gay cancer”. New York City was going through a disastrous financial crisis through most of the 70’s. Many of them lived for the night scene and brought their creativity and energy to clubs.
Plus I found the regulars much more interesting. This is because as a portrait photographer, I knew that if I was to shoot a celebrity I would want to have them all to myself and be able to engage with them and have control over the lighting, background and general mood of the photo. I never focused on celebrities at the clubs. Q: Other photographers focused on celebrity during that period, why did you point your camera in the other direction? I think if it had been a crowd of the normal “beautiful people” of NYC I would have left and never come back. It wasn’t long before the room was packed with the most diverse and inclusive group of people I had ever seen. I quickly bought 10 rolls of Tri-X film from a departing photographer and waited. One night I was sent up to Studio 54 - the den of iniquity - to photograph an awards dinner for Lillian Carter, the then president Jimmy Carter’s mother.Īfter covering the assignment for the Village Voice I decided to stay on through the night to see what the “regular” crowd was like. Early on in my photographic career I was doing a lot of work for The Village Voice in NYC.