In the 1980s, New York artist Jane Dickson used to live on 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, a time when the area riddled with crime. It was also when Dickson photographed and painted scenes from her life in Times Square—including snapshots from her apartment window, on the streets and up close.
Dickson is now showing these iconic relics of Times Square in her forthcoming hardcover book, Jane Dickson in Times Square, which is being released with Anthology Editions on October 23.
Times Square was not always a sensory overload tourist destination in central Manhattan, and this book is akin to a time machine that takes readers back to a time when New York City was a rich hotbed for culture.
“I was a flâneur, documenting this crazy scene; a painter, using the camera to take notes, trying to get some grip on what the hell was going on,” writes Dickson. “One of my main goals is to leave a record of how the world looked and felt, in this place, at this time, to this woman. The female gaze is not disembodied—it is very much embodied and grounded within the female form and experience, here in my experience.”
Text by Nadja Sayej
Photos via Jane Dickson
Photos via Jane Dickson
