Love New York, love the streets: Timeless snapshots of the eccentric characters who have walked the city that never sleeps
- Arlene Gottfried documented the likes of Coney Island, Crown Heights and Lower East Side for 40 years
- American photographer took pictures of everything from impoverished children to glamorous clubgoers
- Gottfried took some of her first photographs at the legendary Woodstock festival in 1969
- She eventually became a professional photojournalist, her work appearing in Life and NYT Magazine
A butcher's boy with a devilish grin, a Studio 54 clubber in head-to-toe stripes, and a naked bodybuilder next to a Hasidic Jew.
These are just some of the captivating and eccentric pictures that American photographer Arlene Gottfried captured of New York City and its surroundings from 1970 to 2006 available to see at the Bruce Lurie Gallery.
Twenty-five of Gottfried's prints are now on display at the Hardhitta Gallery in Los Angeles, but they have also been released online to offer a peep into the photographer's knack for capturing everyday life.
Gottfried, who is the sister of comedian Gilbert Gottfried, took her first photographs at the legendary Woodstock festival in 1969, with a camera given to her by her father.
But Gottfried didn't need a music festival to find captivating subjects. The photographer quickly showed she had a talent for capturing surprising moments even in the setting of her own home in Crown Heights.
Gottfried began by taking pictures of her family, but soon expanded into the wild streets of New York.
She documented everything and everywhere - from the playful environment of Coney Island to the Puerto Rican neighborhoods that dominated the Lower East Side in the 1970s and 1980s.
It was there that she captured one of her most famous pictures, a parade of young girls in white dresses, walking to their first communion.
Gottfried eventually became a professional photojournalist, her work appearing in the likes of New York Times Magazine, Life, and The Independent in London.
And it was through her work that the world was given a peek into the everything from the clubs to the beaches to the streets of the city that never sleeps.
A collection of American photographer Arlene Gottfried's stunning photos of New York City from the years 1970 to 2006 are now on display at the Hardhitta Gallery in Los Angeles
Gottfried had a knack for capturing captivating images of everyday life in the city - from its people to its pets
Gottfried documented a wide variety of neighborhoods in the city, from her birthplace in Crown Heights to Staten Island, where she photographed this baby with a paper bag on its head in 1974
The only picture in the collection not taken in New York is of this devilish butcher's boy from Boston, photographed in 1975
Gottfried had a knack for finding New York's most eccentric characters, including Lloyd Steir of the Big Apple Circus, 1976
But some of Gottfried's photographs showed more intimate moments, such as this child napping in a family's car in Coney Island, pictured 1976
This photograph shows a man named Angel, showing off as a woman gives a stern look to the camera on the Brighton Beach Boardwalk in 1976
Gottfried didn't only focus on the fun and eccentric side of New York. With this image she perfectly captured the poverty of El Barrio, or East Harlem, which struggled with poverty and drug abuse throughout the 1970s
Gottfried managed to capture snapshots of childhoods in New York, from an El Barrio boy trying to ride a broken bicycle to a girl all dressed up for Halloween
Gottfried got her start taking pictures at the historic Woodstock festival, and she was still drawn to its similar wild and free-spirited characters throughout her career
That included the legendary drug-fueled Manhattan club Studio 54, where she photographed this woman dressed head-to-toe in a striped bodysuit and heels
Some of Gottfried's pictures had a comedic twist, such as this Jewish bodybuilder who asked her to take his picture next to a Hasidic Jewish man in Coney Island (1980)
One of Gottfried's most famous images is of this parade of young girls in white dresses heading to their first communion
It was also in the Puerto Rican neighborhoods of the Lower East Side that she captured two boys watching an entire pig roast
A woman stands in the sun as she walks outside of an apartment in her red shoes, captured in the El Barrio neighborhood
An elderly couple dance at the pool in 1985, the woman's manicured nails and golden rings the focus of the photograph
An elderly woman, with perfectly lined lipstick and coiffed hair, stands outside Stuytown in the East Village, 1990s
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