Edo Bertoglio’s Polaroids
Photos of New York City’s hippest era
When Swiss photographer Edo Bertoglio first arrived in New York City in 1976 he found a city pulsing with creative energy. “The areas around South Manhattan were becoming a massive outdoor stage, right before our eyes, with people playing music, painting, writing, acting,” recalled Bertoglio, who shot for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine and took revealing Polaroids of some of the most interesting denizens of the downtown scene, including Madonna, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry and Jean-Michel Basquiat. “I’m a face addict,” Bertoglio has said. “Every time you see a picture of a face, you can count on the fact that I’m in love with that face, and I’m very touched by it.” While immersing himself in the counterculture, Bertoglio developed a debilitating drug habit which forced him to sell off most of his possessions, except for two bags of his photographic archives, including the Polaroids he assembled into the 2015 book New York Polaroids 1976-1989. Here are a collection of those images, which capture the spirit and style of a legendary era in New York’s cultural history.
