“This is the view from my apartment on 11th Street between Avenues A and B, looking north. To the left, next to the empty lot is the building known as the Rock, which at the time was one of the largest drug-selling operations in the city.” Pinhole, captured with 4x5 inch b/w Polaroid type 55 negative sheet film.

COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

OrangeHare is proud to present, “Contemplating the City, New York – Black and White,” the debut NFT collection by internationally acclaimed German photographer Andreas Sterzing.

When a young Andreas Sterzing arrived in New York City in the early 1980s, he landed in the middle of the explosion of creativity that would later be known as the East Village Art scene. With his camera and a sense of adventure, he captured iconic street scenes that show a pivotal moment in the city’s cultural history and launched his budding career as a professional photographer.

This unique selection of black and white photographs spanning nearly two decades was hand printed by the artist himself at the time and has been produced exclusively for this NFT sale in collaboration with OrangeHare.

Best known for his work covering Pier 34 and the East Village art scene and long-term personal projects, Andreas has had his photographs published in international magazine features and shown in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, SeMA (Seoul Museum of Art), KW-Berlin (Kunst-Werke Berlin), Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Jeu de Paume in Paris and more.

ARTIST BIO

Andreas Sterzing is an acclaimed German photographer who has worked on international magazine assignments and long-term personal projects. His work explores the impact creativity and art can have both on an individual level and on society, and how societal realities in turn influence artists and their work.

In the 1980s Andreas launched his career in New York with photos of Pier 34 and the artists taking part in the project, and with stories about the East Village art scene, in which he was an active participant. Since then his commissioned magazine work has been seen regularly in prestigious publications including Stern, Der Spiegel, Geo, Zeit Magazin, Marie-Claire, DU, King Kong and the New York Times Magazine.

Exhibitions in museums and galleries followed at the Whitney Museum of American Art, SeMA (Seoul Museum of Art), KW-Berlin (Kunst-Werke Berlin) Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Jeu de Paume in Paris and others. Andreas’s images are in private collections and have featured in books and numerous documentaries about the 1980s New York art scene. In 2020 his iconic portrait “David Wojnarowicz (Silence = Death)” (1989) was named as one of “The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since World War II” by the New York Times Magazine.