OUT OF THE SHADOWS

BY: Ramona Duoba

In the spring of 1978 Marcus Leatherdale arrived in New York City after completing his photographic training at the San Francisco Art Institute. He was 25, hungry and just trying to make it. With camera in hand he captured the raucous era of the city’s downtown club scene. What he didn’t realize he was archiving an era that would soon be extinct.

His latest book, Out of the Shadows-Marcus Leatherdale: Photographs New York City 1980-1992, is a collection of black and white portraits of icons including, Madonna, Debbie Harry, Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe and others. An exhibit at Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery in NYC parallels Leatherdale’s compilation. Spencer Throckmorton, gallery owner and long-time friend of Leatherdale says, “The exhibit is a retrospective of the 80’s with all the movers and shakers of that time.” A time when clubs like Studio 54, Area, Pyramid and Mudd Club attracted the who’s who and Leatherdale, the new kid in town, became part of a world that was a blend of art and glamour. And still, beneath the avant garde nightlife of this era was the new reality of AIDS.

 

I caught up with Marcus Leatherdale to learn about the portraits he photographed, the disease that stole his friends and how he feels about New York now.

RD: Your book, Out of the Shadows, and the corresponding exhibit is all about NYC in the ’80s. What do you want people to take away or learn about that era?

ML: The 1980s was a phenomenal era. No doubt the most amazing nightlife and art scene. It was also an era of loss and memorials. Nostalgia comes into play when the future is precarious and uncertain, like now. So we revert to the past for a sense of the known and security. Consequently the 1980s have been glamorized and idolized, a form of escapism. At this time, we all thought we would be 20 something forever. I was unaware that I was actually chronicling and archiving an era that was going to be extinct in 20 years. This series of photographs are not impersonal paparazzi shots, but an insider’s view of the “in-crowd” that made up the NYC art scene of the 1980’s. A lost era.

RD: What was Divine like to photograph…both in and out of drag?

ML: Divine aka Glen was not a drag queen. He was an actor who impersonated a female character “Divine”. If I wanted to photograph Divine, I had to organize a shoot just prior to a scheduled gig, so he would be tarted up in drag. The shoot took place at his “PentHut” on his terrace beforehand and later in his Japanese inspired bedroom. He was professional and friendly.

 

RD: What can you tell us about the Andy Warhol portraits?

ML: I first photographed Andy Warhol at the Factory on Union Square when I was invited for lunch. He sat on a black couch next to a stuffed Penguin. Later I shot Andy for Issey Miyake’s “Bodyworks” in a Tuxedo. My last portrait of Andy was at the last Factory which was the old Con Ed building. It was a “Hidden Identities” for Details Magazine. He is sitting next to a bust of Caligula.

 

RD: What kind of reaction did you get to the photo of the young man with AIDS?

ML: Stephen Reichard was a very close friend who contracted AIDS in the mid 80’s. I would ride in ambulances with him in the middle of the night and stay with him on night watch in the hospital–chasing after frightened nurses to help him. No one knew what was what back then. Stephen asked to be photographed. He wanted his final portrait to portray the devastation of AIDS. He said, “I finally will be an intriguing Nude.”

 

RD: Was it difficult to get people like Madonna, Debbie Harry, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Iman to agree to being photographed?

ML: It was not difficult to get people to sit for me because we were all friends. Just took a dinner or a phone call. It was mutual.

RD: I understand you started out as Robert Mapplethorpe’s studio manager–would you say he influenced your work and style?

ML: I was Robert Mapplethorpe’s Studio Manager for a few months only, but he did give me insight as to how a photo studio functioned in NYC. I worked mostly for Sam Wagstaff as curator of his photography collection. I was impressed by Robert’s photographs initially. However, my main influences are from painting not photography. Caravaggio and Modigliani.

 

RD: Do you like NYC now as much as you did then?

ML: 21st century NYC is not my town. I only do back door NYC for business and to see a few friends. There is no more bohemia. New York City was the center of the universe from the mid 1950s up to 1990. So it had a glorious thirty year run and then…I think it faded out. Unfortunately a lot of incredible people left us as well. Andy Warhol is no longer with us. Tina Chow is no longer with us. Keith Haring, John Sex and International Chrysis are gone too. So many creative extraordinary people that were not replaced to sustain the city’s vibrant bohemia. Being part of the downtown NYC crowd in the 80s was amazing. There was a vibrant bohemia community which thrived on creativity and originality, not money and labels. There was a sense of being exactly where I wanted to be. I have never felt
that strongly about anywhere or time since. New York City is no longer New York City because New Yorkers no longer live in it. Americans do. The Americans that would never have set foot in the city when it was my NYC…too edgy, too dangerous, too dirty. Just another American city now. By the way, when I refer to New Yorkers, I am not being literal. It’s a mindset. I am a Canadian New Yorker, but not an American. No one seems to live in the moment anymore. Everyone is focused only on their SmartPhones and go nowhere without GPS. I miss my NYC.

Marcus Leatherdale’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. His exhibit, at Throckmorton Fine Art Gallery in NYC, runs until January 25, 2020.