From 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 ’80s, 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 this small, tantalizing exhibition at the New York Historical, to commemorate its recent acquisition of nearly 300 of Gottfried’s photographs.

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