63 E 9th Street : NYC Polaroids 1975-1983

Tom Bianchi

In 1975 Tom Bianchi moved to New York City, working at Columbia Pictures as in-house counsel. Columbia gave Bianchi a Polaroid SX - 70 camera, which he took to the Pines on summer weekends; those pictures became the 2013 book Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 1975-1983. Now, some 44 years later, we get a first look at another extraordinary collection of Bianchi's Polaroids, taken in his East 9th St apartment. Whereas Fire Island offers an expansive communal experience situated on a sunny sand bar out in the Atlantic under huge open skies, Bianchi's New York apartment was an intimate, track-lit den, a safe stage where he and his friends played out erotic night games. Playful, nostalgic and sexy, Tom Bianchi: 63 E 9th Street is an essential companion book to Fire Island Pines and an important document of urban gay life.