{"id":113556,"date":"2025-02-27T15:27:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:27:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/vibrant-polaroids-of-new-yorks-80s-party-scene\/"},"modified":"2025-02-27T15:27:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:27:21","slug":"vibrant-polaroids-of-new-yorks-80s-party-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=113556","title":{"rendered":"Vibrant polaroids of New York\u2019s \u201980s party scene"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Camera Girl<\/strong> \u2014 After stumbling across a newspaper advert in 1980, Sharon Smith became one of the city\u2019s most prolific nightlife photographers. Her new book revisits the array of stars and characters who frequented its most legendary clubs.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Dallas native Sharon Smith landed in New York<\/a> during the winter of 1978, with dreams of becoming a photographer. \u201cI was a bit lost and terribly naive, with no clue how to make a living,\u201d says Smith. \u201cIt took me a while to figure that out.\u201d <\/p>\n

During summer 1980, Smith happened upon a \u2018help wanted\u2019 advertisement in The Village Voice<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0The legendary nightclub, Copacabana, needed photographers to work high school proms. \u201cSuddenly, I found myself lugging an old-fashioned press camera from table to table, feeling a bit like a dinosaur shooting black-and-white pictures of kids half my age,\u201d she remembers. \u201cNevertheless, I was a \u2018camera girl\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Smith knew what the people wanted, and she gave it to them again and again, building up a reputation that drove her colleagues mad with jealousy. \u201cThey saw how much money I was making. It wasn’t good for morale,\u201d she says. \u201cI was so successful, I got fired as soon as prom season was over.\u201d <\/p>\n

It was, in retrospect, all for the best. Smith paid a visit to the Ritz, a new wave club in the East Village, and pitched the idea of a \u201ccamera girl\u201d to management. They knew a good thing when they saw it, and she immediately got to work. <\/p>\n

Over the next decade, Smith crafted an extraordinary portrait of \u201980s nightlife at its dazzling heights, now collected in\u00a0Camera Girl<\/a> <\/em>(IDEA Books). The book brings together never before seen photographs of Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, David Bowie<\/a>, and Iggy Pop with a delectable array of rare birds who flocked to clubs like Studio 54, Area, Palladium, and Mars while most New Yorkers were sleeping. <\/p>\n

Every night before work, Smith transformed into \u201cRose\u201d, a persona inspired by the \u201ccamera girl\u201d aesthetic of \u201950s B movies. She donned a slinky black dress, black lace fingerless gloves, satin heels, and red lipstick, and carried film supplies discreetly in her disco bag. Smith worked 11pm to 2am on weekdays, and until 4:30am on weekends, charging $3-5 a photo, earning $300 (upwards of $850 today) on a good night. <\/p>\n

At the time, instant photography was a luxury few could afford at home \u2013 but a night on the town was just the time for such luxuries. \u201cI remember a group of hip hop kids at Roseland Ballroom, each of them wearing a gold necklace,\u201d Smith says. \u201cThey all took off their bling and one by one, each put on all <\/em>of the necklaces and got a shot. \u2018Throw me one\u2019 was their way of asking me to take their picture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Blessed with an eye for style, Smith understood beautiful people wanted nothing so much as to be seen and recognised. The patrons, pleased with their portraits, happily posed for a separate shot for her archive. Celebrities like Madonna, Andy Warhol<\/a>, Sylvester, and Eartha Kitt freely mingled in the crowds, ready for their close up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI began to see my job as an incredible opportunity to combine performance, choreography, and a dash of psychic sensitivity with the more obvious goal of taking a good picture of all these amazing looking people,\u201d she says. \u201cI considered the pictures that I created for my personal collection concrete slivers of that time and place that I grabbed from my lived experience and preserved in plastic.\u201d <\/p>\n

Camera Girl by Sharon Smith is published by IDEA Books<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Buy your copy of Huck 81 here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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