![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Angel-Woman-Brighton-copy.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Angel and Woman Brighton, 1976. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n Arlene Gottfried, Angel and Woman Brighton, 1976. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n
The Brooklyn-born gospel-singing photographer, Arlene Gottfried, has made a name for herself by shooting candid portraits on the streets of New York for over 40 years. Armed with a 35mm, Gottfried has captured lovers and families, club kids and bodybuilders from across the five boroughs, and \u201cThese Days\u201d at the Hardhitta Gallery in Cologne showcases some of the best of these black and whites. Sleek spoke to the artist about being a female photographer in the 1970s and how New York has changed.<\/p>\n
What inspired you to take up photography?<\/strong><\/p>\n I grew up in Brooklyn, born in Coney Island, then moved to Crown Heights, and that’s where I started photographing, mostly people in my neighbourhood and friends. After I moved into Manhattan for university (at the Fashion Institute of Technology), I took a photo course and then my father gave me my uncle’s old 35 millimeter camera. I started photographing people and took my camera to Woodstock in 1969 when I was 19.<\/p>\n What drew you to focus so heavily on portraiture?<\/strong><\/p>\n For me, it was natural to go out of the house, to be out. So when I got a camera, I went out with my camera. When I shoot, it’s mostly something about the way a person is, or who they are, what they’re doing, it could be anything that’s attractive to me. Why people? I don’t really know.<\/p>\n Are you influenced by your experience working in advertising?<\/strong><\/p>\n I did advertising in the beginning, a long time ago. I tried to work as an assistant, but it was very difficult because it was a male-dominated field so when I tried to get freelance work, to help out in studios, they didn’t really want to hire a woman. I’m small and they wanted people who could carry the lighting, which was really heavy in those days with big condensers. One European guy gave me a job and he let me do everything, but most of them wouldn’t hire me. They didn’t think I could do the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n Then I got a job at an ad agency as an assistant. They didn’t really want to give me the job, but they wound up not being able to replace the photographer so I got it. That was in the early 1970s and it was a good time and place to have a job. I got a lot of experience there, doing studio \u2013 8×10, 4×5, 2-1\/4, every format \u2013 with studio lighting or on location, doing still lifes or shooting people. They had a great darkroom where I did my printing after work or on the weekends. When it was slow, I could sneak in there and do some printing.<\/p>\n How do you think being female influenced or influences your work?<\/strong><\/p>\n Maybe in the past, when there were fewer women, and people saw a woman with a camera, they might have been a little more cooperative. It could go both ways \u2013 they could get very angry or they could be more cooperative, it depended. Some of them didn’t like it. A lot of the male photographers felt threatened and didn’t like it.<\/p>\n It’s changed so much with women working. They’re more visible now. I don’t know the statistics on museums and how many are being collected. But on an everyday level, you see women in jobs that used to be male \u2013 bus driver, train conductor \u2013 typically male jobs that now have female employees and photography was the same. It used to be only guys, really. And actually, in my first photography class, I was the only young woman in the class and I had a lump in my throat, like I wanted to cry, only guys there. But it wound up being a very supportive environment and I learned a lot.<\/p>\n Unless you’re doing something that’s a very feminine kind of a topic, I don’t think gender is really all that visible.<\/p>\n How has your style changed over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n Crown Heights turned very rough. At that time (the 80s), in my neighborhood, a lot of people moved out \u2013 the white flight syndrome. When I’d go out to school, I’d notice a moving truck every day, going to the suburbs. Then it became African-American and Puerto Rican, those were the main groups in that time. So my neighborhood influenced me very much. Being able to connect with certain subject matter that had I not lived in that environment, might’ve felt distanced or disconnected.<\/p>\n I’m still using 35mm. I did a little digital for a couple of jobs but with film, I feel like I have something I can still hold onto.<\/p>\n I also used to stop people more. I do that much less. For a long time, I was just doing pictures candidly, where people didn’t see me necessarily. More natural, not posed. Or they weren’t aware of me.<\/p>\n Now, when I shoot, I don’t have a particular thing I’m looking for. New York is different so I don’t feel as challenged there but I do still see some things when I’m moving around, not just taking it for granted. New York is more gentrified. I was reading in the newspaper and they say that the people are less expressive, more subdued and the neighborhoods reflect that. A lot of businesses left and now it’s become a lot of chain stores, not owned by individuals and so you lose a certain environment, and the ambience, and it makes it a little more bland to me.<\/p>\n But I’m still shooting. Wherever you wake up to something new and different, you want to photograph it.<\/p>\n Interview by\u00a0Courtney Tenz\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n “These Days” by Arlene Gottfried is on show at Hardhitta Gallery<\/a> until 10 October 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n Mehr: The 12th Baltic Triennial Proves Local Synergies Are Global<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/May-Wong-Ironing-e1443436586861.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Eddie Sun’s Friend Ironing, 1972. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Baby-In-Car-Coney-copy.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Baby in Car Coney Island, 1976. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Lloyd-and-Dogs.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Lloyd Steir and Dogs in the Big Apple Circus, 1976. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Woman-Peter-Cooper-Village-e1443436478826.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Woman, Peter Cooper Village, 1990. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n![\"Arlene](\"https:\/\/www.sleek-mag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Chinatown-Family-in-Window-e1443436653521.jpg\")
Arlene Gottfried, Chinatown Family in Window, 1970s. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n