Photos of sex and souvenirs on 42nd Street New York City in the 1980s
They sold sex and souvenirs on New York City’s 42nd Street in the 1980s. Artist Mitch O’Connell was there with his camera to take snapshots of the street nicknamed the “Deuce”, where you got. cultural fix of grindhouse, where according to the book Sleazoid Express, cinemas were frequented by:
depressives hiding from jobs, sexual obsessives, inner-city people seeking cheap diversions, teenagers skipping school, adventurous couples on dates, couples-chasers peeking on them, people getting high, homeless people sleeping, pickpockets…
Outside was even better:
phony drug salesman … low-level drug dealers, chain snatchers … [j]unkies alone in their heroin/cocaine dreamworld … predatory chickenhawks spying on underage trade looking for pickups … male prostitutes of all ages … [t]ranssexuals, hustlers, and closety gays with a fetishistic homo- or heterosexual itch to scratch … It was common to see porn stars whose films were playing at the adult houses promenade down the block. … Were you a freak? Not when you stepped onto the Deuce. Being a freak there would get you money, attention, entertainment, a starring part in a movie.
See them more of what 42nd Street looked like in the 1980s on Flashbak.
Posted: 5th, May 2021 | In: Photojournalism, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
