The 80s were a time of big hair, tight jeans, and lots and lots of drugs. It was a magical era, made all the more awesome by my having been born during it. Given that I was only 5 years old when the 80s came to an unfortunate end, I have little recollection of what transpired. What I do know, is that New York seemed like a pretty awesome place at the time, and in a moment you’ll see what I’m talking about. All of the photos below were taken by the amazing Steven Siegel, a photographer who’s been capturing the big apple for decades now.
This entire set was shot entirely in the 80s, and funny enough, you can almost tell just from the *tone* of the images. There’s a certain color to them that’s different from modern cameras, and I actually kind of like it. In addition, the hideous clothes and massive poofy hair styles really date the photos as being uniquely 80s.
New York City in the 1980s
I’ve never seen “Senator’s Daughter”, but with a name like that, there’s no way it’s a bad movie. You’ve got your delicious souvlaki, your ice-cream, and if you want it, a priest like figure to forgive your sins when you exit the theater.
If this were Vancouver, all that smoke would probably be caused by people burning (and inhaling) a certain green plant. This is New York, though, so I don’t know… burning oil drum? Vapor from a manhole cover perhaps? Does that actually happen?
This looks exactly like that one scene in Blade Runner where the Caucasian replicant woman crashes through the store window, briefly becomes a black woman, and then miraculously turns back into a white woman. I swear, I didn’t just dream this up.
When I was a child, I absolutely loved the taste of ice-cream. I would get up early, drink a can of Sprite, and hurry to the local mall to eat many scoops of Baskin Robbins ice-cream. It’s somewhat of a miracle that I don’t weigh 500lbs… I wonder if the religious fellow from the previous photo had anything to do with that?
I sincerely hope that child wasn’t looking to purchase a wig. Wigs are for people who can’t grow their own hair, not for selfish people who have perfectly good hair but are too lazy to grow it out; for shame!
I know that Michael Jackson was big in the 80s, but I didn’t think that people could *actually* achieve moon walking insanity, especially on the subway. This one is clearly in a state of disrepair, but it would be tough to walk on walls, especially the walls of a moving train. The scientific body really needs to track this gentleman down and study him.
I’ve never visited one of these fine establishments, but I’ve heard they’re really not all their cracked up to be. Perhaps in the 1980s there were actually real women, and not just video recordings. If I’m paying money to enter a small, semen soaked both to crank off, the means of entertainment had better be a real person.
These guys and their smoke, honestly… it’s almost like someone fired off a canister of tear gas. If you’re planning holidays to New York, perhaps shop around and use the money you saved to buy a gas mask.
That’s it, that’s all you get today. I’ve picked out my favourite shots, but if you’ve got a hankering for more 80s insanity, head over to Steven Siegel’s Flickr page and check out all of his other fantastic work. He’s taken hundreds of photos of New York through the decades, and all of the shots are extremely interesting.
