Steve Turtell, Portraits and places, 2025

Portraits and Places by Steve Turtell offers six intimate, personal views of a time in New York that now, fifty years later, seems as distant as the lost Continent of Atlantis.

From the first Gay Pride March, to Frank Zappa’s thirtieth birthday party, to the fracture of a treasured friendship with the photographer Peter Hujar during a trip to Mardi Gras, these essays depict a life as varied as the scenes and characters encountered. The text is augmented with eleven Peter Hujar portraits of significant characters featured in the essays, including Charles Ludlam, Sheyla Baykal, and performers in the legendary Palm Casino Revue.

Steve Turtell is a native New Yorker. His 2012 poetry collection Heroes and Householders drew praise from critic Marjorie Perloff for its “subtle and charming poems.” He was the director of public programs at the Museum of the City of New York, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the New-York Historical Society where he oversaw the public programming for 18 photography exhibitions.

Peter Hujar, 1934-1987, now recognized as one of the great American photographers of the 20th century, is best known for his black and white portraits of leading figures in the downtown New York cultural scene in the 70s and 80s.