Nowhere New York: dark, insulting + unmelodic

With a synthesis of imagery, metaphor and feeling, in a space located between attraction and angst, Julia Gorton's photos of New York's No Wave scene, 1976-1980, capture a fleeting time with unique style. This book is filled with Julia Gorton's beautiful visions of downtown Manhattan, in the moments before AIDS, crack, Disney and condos changed everything forever, focus on subjects including musicians and friends; Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Tom Verlaine, David Byrne, Lydia Lunch, Iggy Pop, James Chance, Richard Hell, Anya Phillips and many others less well known, but certainly just as memorable. Documenting the all-night diners, illegal after-hours clubs, totally empty streets, and dingy pits in which music was played, Gorton's photographs make me remember what great joy we all took in wasting our youth.