Photographer Bobby Grossman landed in New York City in the hot, bicentennial summer of 1976 armed with a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he studied alongside Chris Frantz and David Byrne of Talking Heads. Too impatient to look for an apartment, he found a suite at the Chelsea Hotel.
Reflecting on that time, Grossman says, "Downtown New York City in the 1970s was desolate, like a ghost town. You'd walk home from the Mudd Club, and you'd be the only one in sight. You'd look over your shoulder occasionally just so you'd know maybe you weren't alone. It seemed like there was no one anywhere, ever. These days it's hard to believe it's the same in New York. Everything changes."
As a student at RISD, Grossman had already been visiting the city, networking, and dropping off his portfolio with editors and art directors. Classmate and fashion journalist Andre Leon Talley provided Grossman a break, introducing him to artist Richard Bernstein, who did the covers for Warhol's Interview magazine. Bernstein had his studio in the Chelsea Hotel, where Grossman worked as his assistant. He also met Andy Warhol at his studio the Factory. "Andy liked my art so he phoned Lou [Reed], who was a few blocks away at the Gramercy Park Hotel. I spent the afternoon with Lou. He had a cassette of Coney Island Baby and shared a nearly finished mix of the album on his boom box," Grossman says.
"You can almost say I had peaked in New York meeting Andy and Lou, and I hadn't even moved to town yet," he says.
Having spent time at the Ocean Club, Max's Kansas City, and CBGB, Grossman found himself intrigued by the new music emerging from the downtown scene. He put a camera inside the pocket of his motorcycle jacket and captured a pivotal moment in rock 'n' roll history—the birth of punk.
Having befriended Byrne and Frantz at RISD, Grossman was on the scene from the very beginning. "Chris mailed me the CBS Talking Heads demo while I was still in school, hoping they could play an early gig in 1976. They invited me down to CBGB for the first shows with Television, Blondie, Patti Smith, and the Ramones," he says.
Other subjects he fixed his lens upon include Blondie, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Robert Fripp, Johnny Thunders, and fellow Chelsea Hotel resident Sid Vicious. He also captured Jean-Michel Basquiat and William S. Burroughs. "I'd see Bowie and Iggy on occasion. David was always very nice. I was hired a few times to take photos of them," he says.
Known for being affable, Grossman put himself right in the middle of the action. His photos appeared in Rolling Stone, Interview, Artforum, the New York Times, SoHo Weekly News, the Village Voice, MTV, Vogue, and more. He was also the house photographer for Glenn O'Brien's cult public-access variety show "TV Party."
About his style, Grossman says, "The DIY punk ethos circumnavigated convention. Some of our art was without trained skill; guileless technique with genius results."
Initially, he would shoot from the hip but didn't always achieve the desired results. Later he switched to a more conventional style. "I had never considered myself a serious photographer. I had to grow into it," he says.
The New Gallery has curated a show of his work, "Low Fidelity," which will be exhibited at Time and Space Limited in Hudson March 9 through the 31. There will be an opening reception on March 9, from 5 to 9pm. The event will feature a vinyl and digital deep cut set by DJ Climax and a performance by New York City-based musician Ben Seretan. There will be live music in the gallery by Lulu Lewis on March 16 at 7pm, with a closing party on March 30. Photos from the show comprise Grossman's latest book, Low Fidelity: Downtown New York 1975-85, due out this spring from Waverly Press.
