Amazing photos from an inspiring era as experienced and shot by the Prague-based filmmaker and music-video maker Robert Carrithers. Check out the photos of Jean Michel Basquiat, Keith Harring, Ann Magnuson, Paul Nolan Smith, Gudrun Gut, and many other inspiring personalities from New York's Lower East Side arts scene. You will find an interview with Robert about these photos with stories from Lower East Side in the 1980's below.

New York's Lower East Side in the late seventies/early eighties was an urban wasteland and an incredibly fertile artistic playground that gave birth to post-punk, new wave, no wave and had a thriving performance scene. Check out Robert's Flickr page for more photos accompanied by his illuminating notes.

How do you reminisce over the period in NYC in the 1980s? 

I had surgery last August. To be honest, I didn’t know how I would end up. After the surgery I needed to recover for a month. I thought that this was the time to finally create my webpage. I went through all of my photos and films. I went all the way back to my childhood when I first started taking photographs. I went through the period of growing up in Chicago, through my crazed creative early '80s period in New York and then all the way up to my present life in Prague. It was a hell of a lot of work. I started last September 2009 and completed it in January 2010. It was very good therapy and a long  journey. I had to do a lot of research about the people in the photos, especially the ones in  the '80s New York. I did not know if some of these people were dead or alive. I reconnected with some of these people around the world and learned a lot about them. I learned things about them that I did not realize at the time and I was also surprised about what some of the people are doing now. There were a number of people who had passed away. The early '80s New York was an intense time and a lot of people did not survive it. Some people died of AIDS (Which ended this intense period in New York very quickly combined with New York gentrification) The research was rewarding. The photos are important, but the writing that I did for each photo, makes each of these unique personalities come alive.  

I realize I did not directly answer this question. I usually do not have the time to reminisce about the past. I don’t believe it is healthy to live in the past. If you do, you get stuck and don’t move forward. The '80s New York was a very special time for me and I am certainly happy to have experienced it. It certainly made me who I am today. I remember and use the past for who I am now. I live in the now and plan for tomorrow. It was fascinating to go through the journey from the past to the present through with the process of the webpage. I feel like things are now in place and I really am ready for a new stage in my life.   

I suppose if I got together with friends of that time over drinks we would of course reminisce. It would help to be with people of that time to trigger different things that happened. I remember mostly the ‘80s in New York as a creative blur because so much happened at that time. I would go from one event to another in those days. I worked at clubs, produced shows, had my own shows, performed etc. We would get into all the clubs for free, we knew all the bartenders and got free drinks. We would be invited to parties with free food and drinks. We were offered drugs all the time. It’s no wonder that it so difficult to remember. I hope some of my photos express the time period and the people involved. I admit I need to write more about it. 

Which is your favorite photo? Could you describe the circumstances when you made it? 

Favorite photo? Each is a memory and a moment. I like them all for different reasons. I do not have a particular favorite. Each one takes me somewhere by remembering the moment, the person and the situation. 

What was so fascinating about NYC in that period? 

It was like one big creative laboratory where we all encouraged each other to develop our talents and have fun doing it. .

I am happy that I was there in New York at that special time and place. It is something that will never leave me and it will always be a part of me. Many people who were able to experiment in the ‘80s New York clubs Club 57, Mudd Club, Danceteria etc. And then they went out into the world and actually changed world culture. I lived around the corner from Club 57 on 10th street between 2nd and 1rst Avenue. It was very close. It was like my club house for creativity around the corner and it certainly was nice and easy to walk home after one debauched night followed by another… 

Any memorable stories? 

I remember seeing the 13 all girl band Pulsallama play at Club 57. The club was decorated in a very pagan and tribal style. I think it was called “The Rites of Autumn Night” or maybe that was at a club called The Cavern where I used to work as a bartender. I worked at the bar in a very small corner in the basement. I used to dress up like a priest. People used to call me the Reverend and my small bar was called the confessional booth. People would tell me intimate stories over drinks and leave their offerings. Anyway, the club was covered with fresh autumn leaves and everyone was dressed in a pagan tribal style. It fit the music because Pulsallama was very raw tribal sounding. I remember people dancing to the tribal sounds of thirteen women on the stage pounding their instruments and drums, leaves flew in the air as the people were dancing very wildly. I see the slow motion effect of leaves flying in the air with half naked Pagan girls and boys wildly gyrating to the primitive beat of a psychedelic pagan 13 all girl band. Maybe I should make a film about this…. 

And then there was the time when I went to the opening of the Mudd Club where I met Dr. Mudd, who introduced the B52’s and I was given oodles of drugs and drinks and danced with a leather clad shaved headed woman named M who seduced me and took me back to her room at the Chelsea hotel where I stayed for several days in a pleasurable stupor. And then there was the time…. Well, sorry you will have to buy me some drinks to loosen my tongue to get the really juicy stories out of me!  

What are you working on currently?

I am presently completing the filming of a documentary that I am doing in Prague and Berlin about the Berlin based Australian band Fatal Shore (check out the trailer here). I will be going into post-production next month and I’ll start editing the film. I hope to have the completed film by June of this year. 

I am promoting my webpage of film and photography work.  A lot has come out of it already. The people in the photographs or involved in the films are happy and inspired from it. It seems some projects are happening as a result of this webpage. I hope by creating this webpage I will have created a portal that will spin me to new places and adventures. And of course I hope to get some work out of all this and meet some like-minded creative people! I am in the process of writing a feature film script about a horror/ghost story set in Prague, a possible film job in Tokyo in April and completing the music and sound production on a short film about mystic symbols in Prague. The story is told with marionettes and animation and attempts to capture the mysticism of Prague. 
 

Check out Robert's homepage for more amazing photos and videos:

http://www.robertcarrithers.com