CELEBRATING THE REAL WITNESS: ALEX HARSLEY
Known as one of New York’s finest photographers, Alex Harsley has witnessed life in the city like no one else. Having been there since 1948, he grew up within New York and made a name for himself for the beautiful portraits he was able to capture.
From Muhammad Ali to Jean-Michel Basquait, this experimental photographer and videographer has created art which has witnessed life in New York grow and bud into the island of life as it is today. At 81 years, the artist is still one of New York’s best and last iconoclast and a proud gallery owner. The self taught artist grew up cotton picking and peanut farming at his family’s farm and when his mother moved him to NY, there was a whole new life to discover as a black man.
His gallery retains the touch of nostalgia that defined Harsley’s life earlier on. A whole wall is dedicated to the canisters and technology that depicts the timeline of photography and how the art and artist grew together.
His earlier inspirations were album cover photos, where he used a rectangular format and a 35mm camera while the rest were sporting some other line of gadgets. And from then on, it was all uphill.
To date, Harsley is known as a legend in the world of photography. Making a simple clothesline with white sheets look ethereal— no one has come close to replicating work with so much emotion and stories. Art aficionados and enthusiasts have claimed that Harsley’s take on photography is the sole reason that the 4th Street has survived and that the galleries are thriving.
As a man with simple roots and a story of self discovery, Alex Harsley has laid the foundation of what photography really is. He is an absolute inspiration for young and budding photographers of color in a world where skin color has defined the history of nations.
His most stunning works were his black and white series that he created in the 1980s. Capturing life and people in New York going about their days and indulging in carefree actions has been his forte– especially the lives of people of color. Harsley’s art has been a way to propagate the realities of light, using just a camera and a dark room to create the most evocative photographs.
Evergreen and forever talented, Alex Harsley is one of a kind and definitely the artist whose stories will be repeated throughout the upcoming decades.
