Tom Bianchi: 63 E 9th Street. A playful, nostalgic and sexy document of urban gay life in NYC, 1975–1983.
In 1975 Tom Bianchi moved to New York City, working at Columbia Pictures as in-house counsel. Columbia gave Bianchi a Polaroid SX – 70 camera, which he took to the Pines on summer weekends; those pictures became the 2013 book Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 1975–1983. Now, some 44 years later, we get a first look at another extraordinary collection of Bianchi’s Polaroids, taken in his East 9th Street apartment.
Whereas Fire Island offers an expansive communal experience situated on a sunny sand bar out in the Atlantic under huge open skies, Bianchi’s New York apartment was an intimate, track-lit den, a safe stage where he and his friends played out erotic night games. Playful, nostalgic and sexy, NYC Polaroids 1975–1983 is an essential companion book to Fire Island Pines and an important document of urban gay life.