As has long been the case between myself and a few other similarly inclined, NYC-centric bloggers (the ones who are still at it, at least), whenever one of us discovers some arcane website, lost cache or far-flung collection of old photographs or video footage of the NYC of eons past, we tend to get really excited about it and dutifully share our findings. We all tend to look for something different, of course. Given my predilections, I’m usually looking for period-specific pics of punk rock shit, or images of old record stores or places that I remember from my childhood here that no longer exist. That stuff doesn’t speak to everyone, but it certainly resonates with me and, I hope, my readers as well.
I’ve shared my own discoveries of these things before (notably here, here and here, to cite but three), but I sorta backed into another one quite recently, and summarily feel it’s worth sharing. So, y’know, that’s what I’m doin’.
There are, however, some complications. Normally, one finds a website or a gallery or a fully curated and annotated collection. Not in the instance. This batch of photographs came up via a Google search, and I clicked through to find its frankly sprawling abundance of images. The trouble is -- there are no credits or sources or extrapolation to the photographs of any great note beyond what’s in their respective URLs. I kept clicking back to get to an explanatory parent directory, but those paths lead to dead ends. As a result, I know precious little about this cache of photographs beyond that they seem to have been culled together during March of this year. What “WW.PSYCKO.COM” is or was or means or has in store, I have no idea. But, here it is.
Click around and you’ll find directory titles like “New York/Gritty Urban Decay 70s 80s,” “gangs,” “Crime Scenes,” “NY Celebs,” etc. Some feature more background info than others. Some none at all. You'll doubtlessly recognize some of the more celebrated shots, but you'll also encounter volumes of shots you've probably never seen before.
It’s all very messy. There are incongruously placed directories buried within folders that have relatively little to do with the subject matter cited. It’s all very confusing.
But search around long enough, and you’re bound to encounter a shot or two that resonates with you, like the one above of Minetta Street, or the one below of the old Sound Factory.
So, there you have it. Call it flagrant nostalgia or rubble-porn or whathaveyou, but it’s there for the perusing.
Scattered around this post are some of the ones that jumped out at me.
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