Bill Bernstein
Bill Bernstein is actively a portrait photographer for editorial, healthcare, advertising, music, and fine art based in New York City. He is an internationally celebrated, award winning portrait and documentary photographer. His career began at a newspaper, the Village Voice in the 1970s. Since then his methodology was one of researching and representing contemporary subcultures through his photography. Bernstein felt compelled by Anthropology and he wanted to document humans being humans within his work. He is most known for his photography of the notorious 1970's night scene; specifically late 1970’s when clubs such as Studio 54 and Paradise Garage were at their peak. He is known as well for his time spent with Paul McCartney as his personal photographer; this began in the late 80’s and he continued working with him through his tour in 2005, traveling the world with Paul Mcartney’s team. Bernstein is extremely talented at capturing the subtleties of his individual subjects' lives. In 2017 he spoke at the Library of Congress of his work during the unique and magical bubble of time of the late 1970's in New York City where he focused his attention specifically on the club culture where inclusion and freedom of expression reigned in its full glory. This was a special time after Stonewall; pre-AIDS. The manifestation of sexual liberation, Women’s Liberation, Civil Rights and equality was on display in the clubs and on the dance floor all throughout the night. Bernstein pulled inspiration from many different well known photographers, some being Avedon, Brassai, William Klein, Diane Arbus and Irving Penn. No matter what Bernstein is photographing; it’s never superfluous. Quite the opposite actually, every photo of his cuts through the public persona revealing a glimpse of the unguarded, entire personality of his subject. His work is exhibited globally. Most recently, in the stand-alone exhibition, “Night Fever: New York Disco 1977-1979,” which can be located at Manhattan's Museum of Sex, The Galerie fuer Moderne Fotografie (Berlin), The David Hill Gallery (London), as well as an exhibit at Philharmonie de Paris in May, 2019, and the London Design Museum in April, 2020. His work is featured as well in a traveling exhibit for the Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein, Germany) and can be seen in various venues throughout the world until 2024. My favorite photo is one he took of Paul Mccartney during the time spent with him. This photo appears to be taken during a practice session, prior, or possibly after a show to cool down.
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