Edo Bertoglio’s Polaroids Transport Us to the 1980s NYC of Warhol, Basquiat and Madonna

When it came to music and avant garde art, few eras shone as brilliantly as the 1980s. The city was an incubator for experimental creatives like Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Debbie Harry and Madonna, individuals forging a name for themselves in a gritty yet glam city that was frantically pulsating with life.

Photographer Edo Bertoglio was lucky enough to experience the time, spending his days amongst these inevitable icons from 1976 to 1989 and oftentimes snapping photos of them in intimate situations with his Polaroid camera. Now, decades later, Bertoglio is sharing his experience through his new book, “New York Polaroids 1976-1989,” which culls 140 cherished images he’s kept near and dear since those bygone days.

From 1976 to 1984, Bertoglio worked with Warhol at Interview magazine, taking cues from the pop artist who himself chronicled his surroundings with a Polaroid camera (these are also published in a book).

“The music was really the thing that kept this community together,” Bertoglio told CNN. “And of course at the time, we were very young, so we had aspirations to be a photographer, a fashion designer, a writer, an actor. … It was a lot of creativity.”

Back in those days, Bertoglio and his friends benefitted from cheap rents and an insatiable drive to just create. Though the vibrancy of the era burned out quickly—in large part due to drugs and the AIDS epidemic—as you can see from the photos, its impression on American culture and style has endured.

You can purchase Edo Bertoglio’s book through Yard Press.

[Via CNN]

Images via CNN courtesy of Edo Bertoglio

RELATED:

• New Yorker Spotlight: Al Diaz on NYC Street Art and Working with Jean-Michel Basquiat
• It’s a Hip-Hop Revolution! Photos of a Pop Culture Movement Born in New York
• A Tale of Two Cities: Disco-Era Bushwick Burns While Manhattan Boogies (PHOTOS)