Bande à part.

In the seventies the most important subcultural developments of music in New York started: disco, punk, graffiti and the early forms of hip hop. The book Bande à part (New York Underground 60's 70's 80's) shows the movers and shakers of the Big Apples cultural life during the Cold War, portrayed by obsessive and local amateurs; the bloggers of those years.

As anthropologists they caught the artistic bohemian of the cultural capital of the world. In the book, you see Al Pacino, Patti Smith, William Burroughs, Debbie Harry, Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, the New York Dolls and many more - usually not posing, but shot in their natural habitat, the vaults of Manhattan. In Bande à part you also find a gathering of musicians from outside of New York like Iggy Pop, Alex Chilton of The Cramps, all outsiders of the American dream. Pleasant about this collection is the absent of glamour: a timeperiod that'll never come back.

Glenn O'Brien - Bande à part: New York Underground 60's 70's 80's (Gingko Press) hardcover, 206 pages, prise 14,99 euro.

Written for BLEND.