I was shocked at the gender-bending scene around them, but soon came to enjoy the circus of wild characters they attracted. It's hard to express how exiting the scene was -- loose, free, chaotic, wild -- and I knew I wanted to be part of it."
Bob Gruen
New York City, March 2008
Bob Gruen didn't just experience life with the New York Dolls, he photographed it -- a lot. The legendary rock photographer first captured the seminal glam-cum-precursor-to-punk band at a gig at the Mercer Arts Center on New Years Eve in 1972. He continued hitting the shutter right through the band's bright but brief career, documenting their demise in '75 while wards of punk rock impresario Malcolm McClaren, and their resurrection nearly two decades on.
"They were living a decadent life, and I joined right in, but I always knew when to get the photos," says Gruen, who has compiled images of the band for a new book, New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen. Like the band, the book is clad in glamorous and sexy attire, the pages being bound between hot pink satin covers.
Click HERE for my preview and some exclusive images from the book.
