Arlene Gottfried’s solo exhibition at New York Historical was selected as a critics pick by Arthur Lubow in the New York Times.

Arlene Gottfried was drawn to everyday folks who sparkled with the flair of performers. And through her eyes, New York took on the excitement of a circus. In her heyday, during the 1970s and 1980s, she prowled the city with her camera, finding colorful characters who responded with a knowing urban gaze. Typically, they were Black, Puerto Rican, Jewish, gay. In the neighborhoods where she lived and hung out — the Lower East Side, East Harlem, Crown Heights, Coney Island and Greenwich Village — these groups mixed freely, brewing up a heady cocktail that intoxicated her, as can be seen in “Picture Stories: Photographs by Arlene Gottfried,” a small, tantalizing exhibition at the New York Historical, to commemorate its recent acquisition of nearly 300 of Gottfried’s photographs.

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Browse all of Arlene Gottfried’s work at CLAMP.