During his 50-year association with the Village Voice, Fred W. McDarrah (1926-2007) covered the city's downtown scenes, producing an unmatched and encyclopedic visual record of people, movements, and events. McDarrah frequented the bars, cafés, and galleries where writers, artists, and musicians gathered, and he was welcome in the apartments and lofts of the city's avant-garde cultural aristocracy. He captured every vital moment, from Jack Kerouac reading poetry, to Bob Dylan hanging out in Sheridan Square, to Andy Warhol filming in the Factory, to the Stonewall Riots. Through his lens, we see the legendary birth of ideas and attitudes that continue to shape the character and allure of New York today.
"A new book that collects the best of his work, "Fred W. McDarrah: New York Scenes," is one that some people, myself very much included, have been awaiting for a long time."
"It's a book like few others."
"To the details in "Fred W. McDarrah: New York Scenes," attention has been paid. Mr. Wilentz's introduction is a seamless blend of the personal . . . . and the historical. An afterword, credited only to McDarrah's estate, fills in the grainier details of the photographer's legacy. Best of all are this book's captions, edited by Richard Slovak. They are compact but resonant. They take you places you don't expect to go." New York Times
"It's a book like few others."
"To the details in "Fred W. McDarrah: New York Scenes," attention has been paid. Mr. Wilentz's introduction is a seamless blend of the personal . . . . and the historical. An afterword, credited only to McDarrah's estate, fills in the grainier details of the photographer's legacy. Best of all are this book's captions, edited by Richard Slovak. They are compact but resonant. They take you places you don't expect to go." New York Times