Sometimes Overwhelming

"Sometimes Overwhelming," Arlene Gottfried's black-and-white shots of the people of New York in the 1970s and 80s, opens November 6 at Daniel Clooney Fine Art.



When the photos were published as a book in 2008, Vulture called her "a quiet defender of the grimily vibrant denizens of an older New York that’s disappearing daily":

"Ask photographer Arlene Gottfried if she thinks the New York characters she’s shot for 40 years from Coney Island to Times Square and Harlem are freaks, and she bristles. 'I don’t think they’re freaks, because then I’d be a freak, too.'"



On her work on Nuyorican culture of the Lower East Side, Contour magazine wrote: "Her photos are gritty, colorful and unflinchingly honest—occasionally heart-rending—yet throughout there is a sensibility of seeking the light in each person and honoring their lives with love and compassion."



Her upcoming show features 30 vintage photographs taken across the city, from Soho to Coney Island. Don't miss it.



(She's also comedian Gilbert Gottfried's sister.)