JESPER HAYNES


It goes without saying that New York is a city of change. Buildings rise, buildings fall, macadam replaces cobblestone, cobblestone replaces macadam. But as photographer Jesper Haynes demonstrates in his current gallery show, friendships are the constant. Over twenty years, from 1986-2006, Haynes documented the daily ephemera of life inside and outside his apartment on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village, a period that started with the dying embers of the city’s infamous punk scene and ended with the NYU-friendly cookie-cutter bars that now line the blocks. Haynes subtitles his show “Twenty Years of Love and Friendships,” and the photographs are a reminder of just that, moments of laughter, innocence, contemplation, and public urination. There is, of course, a strain of nostalgia that runs through the works, a reminder of a time when New York was less anodyne, but the overall tone is one of recognition and acceptance. Things come and go, but memories remain—same as it ever was.

“St. Mark’s 1986-2006: Twenty Years of Love and Friendships, A Photography Exhibition by Jesper Haynes” runs through June 30 at Gallery OneTwentyEight, 128 Rivington Street.

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