A Conversation and Screening with Clayton Patterson
Since 1979 Clayton Patterson has dedicated his life to documenting the final era of raw creativity and lawlessness in New York City’s Lower East Side, a neighborhood famed for art, music, and revolutionary minds. Traversing the outside edge, he’s recorded a dark and colorful society, from drag to hardcore, heroin, homelessness, political chaos, and ultimately gentrification. His odyssey from voyeur to provocateur reveals that it can take losing everything you love to find your own significance.
Text: courtesy Remy Chevalier