What do you think?
Rate this book
Maripolarama
"Maripol's portraits represent an intimate and glamorously blurry love letter..."
— The Village Voice
During the early 80s, New York’s Lower East Side was a hotbed of creative activity. Unknown artists were synthesizing the fertile ground at the legendary New York nightclubs Studio 54 , the Mudd Club , Club 57 , Palladium , and Danceteria while on their way to international fame and acclaim.
Among those emerging were Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Vincent Gallo, Anna Sui, Exene Cervenka, Kid Creole, and Diego Cortez. Maripol was part of a collective of artists, graffiti writers, street dancers, and performers who all thrived together in the explosive downtown eccentricity. As an image maker and stylist for Madonna during her “Like a Virgin” days, jewelry designer, art director, and producer Maripol relentlessly documented the movers and shakers of the early 80s scene through the lens of her instant Polaroid SX-70.
Collected for the first time in Maripolarama , Maripol’s photographs vividly depict the extraordinary personalities that inhabited the “forever” hip, arty Manhattan clubland during the post-punk era when hip hop was in its earliest stages and graffiti covered the landscape. Whether it’s Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Basquiat, or Madonna modeling a bright pink wig, Maripolarama provides lively and inspiring insight into a time long gone.
— The Village Voice
During the early 80s, New York’s Lower East Side was a hotbed of creative activity. Unknown artists were synthesizing the fertile ground at the legendary New York nightclubs Studio 54 , the Mudd Club , Club 57 , Palladium , and Danceteria while on their way to international fame and acclaim.
Among those emerging were Madonna, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Vincent Gallo, Anna Sui, Exene Cervenka, Kid Creole, and Diego Cortez. Maripol was part of a collective of artists, graffiti writers, street dancers, and performers who all thrived together in the explosive downtown eccentricity. As an image maker and stylist for Madonna during her “Like a Virgin” days, jewelry designer, art director, and producer Maripol relentlessly documented the movers and shakers of the early 80s scene through the lens of her instant Polaroid SX-70.
Collected for the first time in Maripolarama , Maripol’s photographs vividly depict the extraordinary personalities that inhabited the “forever” hip, arty Manhattan clubland during the post-punk era when hip hop was in its earliest stages and graffiti covered the landscape. Whether it’s Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry, Basquiat, or Madonna modeling a bright pink wig, Maripolarama provides lively and inspiring insight into a time long gone.
- GenresPhotography
128 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 31, 2016
Beautiful lush reproductions of Maripol's work with accompanying text. For me, this would have been the scene.
June 7, 2011
We could be heroes.
We came to New York to meet our heroes. We dressed like them, talked like them, lived like them. For a few dollars, anyone could walk into a thrift store and come out looking like a movie star ... motorcycle jacket, cocktail dress, sharkskin suit, stilettos, black eyeliner, tuxedo shirt, and the most important element – the right hair. That was the look; you were Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Edie, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Alain Delon.
You went to art school by day, but it was at night that you really lived. There was the circuit – we'd meet at the restaurant One U and then head to Max's or CBGB's, or both. Then there were the nightclubs like Hurrah and Mudd Club. Everyone would go there to see and be seen. There you'd find out what was happening: see the newest band from London, get asked to be in an underground movie, get invited to an art opening or a fashion show ....
Then there were the parties, usually in lofts up a million steps leading into huge spaces with great music and great people, but no drinks or air conditioning. I remember once an entire abandoned building was decorated like a haunted house and used as a setting for a Halloween party.
Next thing you know, there'd be a new after-hours club springing up in some odd location that made no logical sense. Maybe an office building, up a fluorescent-lit, cramped elevator, out into a hallway lined with tanks filled with hundreds of creepy snakes.
And each night you'd see your heroes: David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Johnny Rotten, Marianne Faithful, Cher, Siouxsie Sioux, Brian Eno, Johnny Thunders, Anita Pallenberg, Sid Vicious. Every night was a great big adventure. We thought it would last forever and ever ... yet all we did was complain about how bored we were.
Anna Sui
We came to New York to meet our heroes. We dressed like them, talked like them, lived like them. For a few dollars, anyone could walk into a thrift store and come out looking like a movie star ... motorcycle jacket, cocktail dress, sharkskin suit, stilettos, black eyeliner, tuxedo shirt, and the most important element – the right hair. That was the look; you were Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Edie, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Alain Delon.
You went to art school by day, but it was at night that you really lived. There was the circuit – we'd meet at the restaurant One U and then head to Max's or CBGB's, or both. Then there were the nightclubs like Hurrah and Mudd Club. Everyone would go there to see and be seen. There you'd find out what was happening: see the newest band from London, get asked to be in an underground movie, get invited to an art opening or a fashion show ....
Then there were the parties, usually in lofts up a million steps leading into huge spaces with great music and great people, but no drinks or air conditioning. I remember once an entire abandoned building was decorated like a haunted house and used as a setting for a Halloween party.
Next thing you know, there'd be a new after-hours club springing up in some odd location that made no logical sense. Maybe an office building, up a fluorescent-lit, cramped elevator, out into a hallway lined with tanks filled with hundreds of creepy snakes.
And each night you'd see your heroes: David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Johnny Rotten, Marianne Faithful, Cher, Siouxsie Sioux, Brian Eno, Johnny Thunders, Anita Pallenberg, Sid Vicious. Every night was a great big adventure. We thought it would last forever and ever ... yet all we did was complain about how bored we were.
Anna Sui
August 12, 2007
This book has so many great photos from the eighties. I love the fact that everything is taken in Polaroid.
November 5, 2010
The candid photos of famous people from the early 80s are fun to look at.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews