New York Piers | queerspacestudies

Manhattan's West Side Piers

Looking back to New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s, one finds some of the most dynamic interrelations between sexuality and space in recent cultural history. In Queer Constellations: Subcultural Space in the Wake of the City, Diane Chisholm describes New York “as the queer capital of the twentieth century, and not just as site of the Stonewall riots in the latter half-century but as the setting of heightened phantasmagoria." The segregation of gay men in Greenwich Village made a fertile environment for the appropriation of the decayed piers along Hudson River as arenas for sexual and social interaction.

These images--captured by itinerant photographers such as Leonard Fink, Shelley Seccombe, Alvin Baltrop, Peter Hujar, and others— constitute an impressive historical record of the piers before their demolition in the late '90s, documenting the appropriation of New York's waterfront by disenfranchised bodies who used them for refuge, habitation, and play.

Photo taken by Stefanos Milkidis, 2017.

You may see more here.

Peter Hujar, Hallway, Canal Street Pier, 1983	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Frank Hallam, Sunners, Pier 51, 1978	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Peter Hujar, Mural at Piers, 1983	Leonard Fink, Pier 46, 1979	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Leonard Fink, Self-Portrait, 1980	Leonard Fink, Pier 46, 1980	Leonard Fink, Pier 46, 1979	Shelley Seccombe, Wall Newspaper – West Street at 11th Street, 1975	Leonard Fink, Pier 52, 1977
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: #2 Mural, 1983	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (interior with man), 1975-86	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Leonard Fink, Kenneth, 1977	Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #4, 1976	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Face and Writing on Wall, 1983	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Leonard Fink, Pier 46, 1980	Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #1, 1976	Peter Hujar, Pier - Four Doors, 1981
Alvin Baltrop,The Piers (exterior view of day's end), 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Miron Zownir, Pier 46, Date Unknown	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (collapsed warehouse), 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, Super Cream, 1980	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (male figure smoking), 1975-1986
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (male drinking with cigarette), 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (male figure by window) 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers (open window), 1975-86	Frank Hallam, Tava Painting the facade of Pier 46, c. 1979	Frank Hallam, Pier 46, En-Mass Sunners. c. 1982
Bethune Street Pier after 1978 Collapse. Photographer Unknown.	Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48 Night Outside.	Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48 Night Inside.	Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48, Balcony.	Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48, Room.
Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48 WTC.	Allan Tannenbaum, Pier 48.	Pterodactyl Mural Inside Pier 34, by David Wojnarowicz, Photographer/Date Unknown.	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #5, 1976
Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Man Painting Figure Studies (possibly Luis Frangella), 1983	Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Man Painted on a Wall, 1983	Peter Hujar, Canal Street Piers: Window Paintings, 1983	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986
Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986 (The Greek word ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ-Freedom inscribed on the wall)	Peter Hujar, Crossed Legs on the Pier, 1976	Peter Hujar, Christopher Street Pier #3, 1976	Alvin Baltrop, The Piers, 1975-1986	A Look at the Twin Towers on the Since-demolished West Side Highway in the Late 1970. Photographer/Date Unknown
Shelley Seccombe, Sunbathing on the Edge of Pier 52, 1977	Andreas Sterzing, Luis Frangella Mural Pier 34, Date Unknown	Leonard Fink, The Piers, Date Unknown	Shelley Seccombe, Two Men on a Bridge Pier 45, 1978	Arthur Tress, Dockside Interview, 1977
Frank Hallam, Sunners-Pier 51 (Exterior from Interior), 1978	Shelley Seccombe, Fire on Pier 46, 1980	Leonard Fink, David Wojnarowicz in front of Pier 46, 1979	Shelley Seccombe, Sunbathers on Pier 51, 1977	Leonard Fink, Days End, 1975
Andreas Sterzing, Keith Davis, 1983	Stanley Stellar, Jerk-Off, 1977	Shelley Seccombe, Sunday afternoon on Pier 49, 1978	Andreas Sterzing, Wojnarowicz's Gagging Cow, Pier 34, 1983	Andreas Sterzing, Pier 34 Demolition (David Wojnarowicz’s Gagging Cow and Richard Hambleton’s shadow painting are visible), 1984
Dirk Rowntree, David Wojnarowicz Artwork Painted Over, 1983	Dirk Rowntree, David Wojnarowicz Painting at Pier 34, 1983	Dirk Rowntree, David Wojnarowicz Painting at Pier 34, 1983	Dirk Rowntree, David Wojnarowicz Painting at Pier 34, 1983	Stanley Stellar, Peter (Hujar) Gets His Dick Sucked, 1981
Stanley Stellar, Cyclops, 1978	Leonard Fink, Date Unknown	Leonard Fink, Date Unknown	Leonard Fink, Date Unknown	Leonard Fink, Date Unknown
Leonard Fink, Date Unknown	Frank Hallam, Swimmer, Pier 46, 1979	Shelley Seccombe, Catwalk Inside Pier 48, 1978	Shelley Seccombe, Dancer on the Pier at Sunset, with audience, bicycle, and fisherman, circa 1975	Shelley Seccombe, Three Stages of a Dive, End of Pier 49, 1978
Daniel & David on Christopher Street Pier, mid-1990s.