Arlene Gottfried
{{short description|American photographer (1950–2017)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Arlene Gottfried
| image = Arlene Gottfried.jpg
| caption =
| birth_name = Arlene Harriet Gottfried
| birth_date = {{birth date|1950|08|26}}
| birth_place = Coney Island, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2017|08|08|1950|08|26}}
| death_place = Manhattan, New York, U.S.
| alma_mater = Fashion Institute of Technology
| resting_place = Beth Moses Cemetery
| field = Photography
| relatives = Gilbert Gottfried (brother)
}}
Arlene Harriet Gottfried (August 26, 1950 – August 8, 2017) was a New York City street photographer who was known for recording the candid scenes of ordinary daily life in some of the city's less well-to-do neighborhoods. Her work was not widely known until she was in her 50s.
Early life and education
Born in Coney Island,{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/arlene-gottfried-new-york-through-the-eyes-of-her-brother-gilbert-gottfried|title=Arlene Gottfried's New York, Through the Eyes of Her Brother Gilbert Gottfried|last1=Piepenbring|first1=Dan|date=April 1, 2018|access-date=March 3, 2019|last2=Gottfried|first2=Arlene|magazine=The New Yorker |issn=0028-792X}} she was the daughter of Lillian (Zimmerman), a homemaker, and Max Gottfried, who ran a hardware store with his own father, above which the family lived.{{cite news|title=Arlene Gottfried, Photographer Who Found the Extraordinary in the Ordinary, Dies at 66|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 10, 2017|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/arts/design/arlene-gottfried-dead-new-york-city-photographer.html|access-date=August 15, 2017|last1=Grimes|first1=William}} Gottfried was the older sister of comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried (1955–2022) and Karen Gottfried. When she was 9, Arlene moved to Crown Heights, where she became heavily influenced by the nearby, fast-growing Puerto Rican community. Later in the 1970s, she moved with her Jewish immigrant family to the neighborhoods of Alphabet City and the Lower East Side.{{cite web|title=How Arlene Gottfried photographed NYC's truest self|url=http://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/37014/1/how-arlene-gottfried-photographed-nycs-truest-self|website=Dazed|access-date=August 15, 2017 |date=August 9, 2017}}
When Gottfried was a teenager, her father gave her an old 35 mm camera, which she eventually took to Woodstock, even though she said, "I had no clue what I was doing". She credited her upbringing for giving her the ability to get intimate photographs of strangers: "We lived in Coney Island, and that was always an exposure to all kinds of people, so I never had trouble walking up to people and asking them to take their picture."{{cite web|last1=Thrasher|first1=Steven W.|title=Arlene Gottfried: an intimate, humorous eye for New York City's eccentricity|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/17/arlene-gottfried-an-eye-for-new-york-eccentricity|website=The Guardian|access-date=August 15, 2017|date=December 17, 2014}}
Gottfried graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology taking photography courses.
Photography
She worked as a photographer for an advertising agency before freelancing for publications such as The New York Times Magazine, Fortune, Life, the Village Voice,{{cite web|title=Obituary: Street Photographer Arlene Gottfried, 66 {{!}} PDN Online|url=https://www.pdnonline.com/features/industry-updates/obituaries/obituary-street-photographer-arlene-gottfried-66/|website=PDN Online|access-date=August 15, 2017|date=August 8, 2017}} and The Independent (London).{{Cite web|url=http://www.powerhousebooks.com/books/sometimes-overwhelming/|title=Sometimes Overwhelming |website=powerHouse Books |access-date=October 30, 2019}}
In her later years, she published five books of her work: The Eternal Light (1999), Midnight (2003), Sometimes Overwhelming (2008), Bacalaitos and Fireworks (2011),{{cite web|first=Jim|last=May|title=Arlene Gottfried: "Nuyorican" Retrospective (5 Photos)|url=https://potd.pdnonline.com/2011/05/9455/|website=PDN Photo of the Day|date=May 2, 2011|access-date=August 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506010703/https://potd.pdnonline.com/2011/05/9455/|archive-date=May 6, 2019|url-status=dead}} and Mommie: Three Generations of Women (2015). The Eternal Light focused on a choir Gottfried first saw at a gospel fest, which also led to her discovery of her love for singing.{{cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4891360/arlene-gottfried-new-york-city-street-photographer-obituary/|title=Remembering Arlene Gottfried: Legendary New York City Street Photographer|last1=Moakley|first1=Paul|magazine=Time|access-date=August 9, 2017}} Midnight is a series of photographs that followed a man named Midnight who struggled with schizophrenia.{{Cite journal|date=November 2011|title=Arlene Gottfried|journal=The British Journal of Photography|volume=158|pages=41}} Sometimes Overwhelming is a compilation of her photographs in the 1970s and 1980s New York. Bacalitos and Fireworks focused on New York's Puerto Rican community in the 1970s and 1980s.{{cite web|title=Photographing New York's Puerto Rican Community in the 1970s and '80s|url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2016/03/11/new_york_s_puerto_rican_community_in_the_1970s_and_80s_photographed_by_arlene.html|website=Slate|access-date=August 10, 2017|date=March 11, 2016}}{{cite news|title=Arlene Gottfried (1950–2017)|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/id=70307|work=artforum.com}}{{cite web|last1=Moroz|first1=Sarah|title=Arlene Gottfried's best photograph: Nuns and kids march through a New York drugs hotspot|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/03/arlene-gottfried-best-photograph-puerto-rican-parade-new-york|website=The Guardian|access-date=August 10, 2017|date=May 3, 2017}} Mommie: Three Generations of Women was a portrait of three generations of women in her family: her immigrant grandmother, her mother and her sister. Mommie: Three Generations of Women later received Time magazine's Best Photobook Award in 2016.
Her photographs and archives have been exhibited at the Leica Gallery in New York and Tokyo, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the European House of Photography (MEP), the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library.
Personal life
In 1991 while on assignment Gottfried photographed the Eternal Light Community Singers, eventually singing gospel with them on the Lower East Side. Gottfried also sang gospel with the Jerriese Johnson East Village Gospel Choir.
She was a regular patron of Nuyorican Poets Café. She was also a known friend of Miguel Piñero.
Death
Gottfried died on August 8, 2017, from complications of breast cancer at her home in Manhattan at the age of 66 surrounded by friends and family.{{cite web|title=Bio|url=http://www.arlenegottfried.com/bio/|website=Arlene Gottfried|access-date=August 9, 2017}}
Publications
- The Eternal Light (Dewi Lewis, 1999)
- Midnight (powerHouse 2003)
- Sometimes Overwhelming (2008)
- Bacalaitos and Fireworks (powerHouse 2011)
- Mommie: Three Generations of Women (powerHouse 2015)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|www.arlenegottfried.com}}
- [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/dec/17/arlene-gottfried-an-eye-for-new-york-eccentricity "Arlene Gottfried: an intimate, humorous eye for New York City's eccentricity; She's a photographer and gospel singer who captured a bygone New York and whose brother is a successful comic. Yet it's only now that Arlene Gottfried is getting her dues", by Steven W. Thrasher, The Guardian, December 17, 2014]
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Category:American gospel singers
Category:Photographers from Brooklyn
Category:People from Coney Island
Category:Deaths from breast cancer in New York (state)
Category:Jewish American artists
Category:American street photographers
Category:Fashion Institute of Technology alumni
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American women photographers
Category:20th-century American photographers