Photographer Tod Papageorge on Shooting at Studio 54, Visual Poetry

Studio 54

In anticipation of photographer Tod Papageorge’s new photo book, Studio 54 (Stanley/Barker), Vice has an interview with him, wherein he talks about his shooting style and what we can expect from the images he shot during the legendary New York club’s heyday.

Studio 54 has been burned in our collective consciousness as the cold glitter of Bryonic poetry, the punk, the dandy. No New York club before or since attained its celebrity or can claim to have such cultural collaboration. A lot of photographs have been taken of Studio 54 and its socialites—some that would forever change the aesthetic of “out and about” photography—but Papegeorge’s photography stands out from the crowd as a study not of celebrity, but of humanity: “Basically its poetic in its nature; it certainly isn’t journalistic in its nature, and again it goes back to my experience of being an artist and having artistic ambitions and being shaped by the art I loved.” The striking 35mm shots seem to shimmer out from the pages of Studio 54, at once dreamy and revealing. Find the complete interview here, where Papageorge also takes on the term “street photography” and describes his other work. And here, on Punch, Al Suarez talks about drinking during New York City’s disco days.”  [Vice] [Image: Flickr/morgan.haha]