Renowned photographer David Armstrong became friends with Nan Goldin at fourteen. Flipping through these glossy, vibrant, intimate Kodachrome shots, there’s a glimmer of Goldin’s influence — an intimacy, a fragility in the hugs, a hazy deliberateness in their hazy smirks. But what are we saying? Any party (and the morning after) shots are better in Kodachrome, especially if they’re a few decades in the past, removed from immediate judgement, with the satin dresses flowing in crimson and the “innocent-bohemian wilderness” on full blast. The Night & Day exhibit and upcoming book from Morel shows off David Armstrong’s Kodachrome photographs from the late ’70s and early ’80s New York “scene.” There were familiar, important faces glinting through — Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Waters, Rene Ricard, Philip-Lorca diCorcia. But mostly, we’re in there for that…feeling. Catch it now on view at the Half Gallery in New York.
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery
Photo credit: David Armstrong. Courtesy of Half Gallery