Jimmy De Sana’s Black-and-White Photos of Blank Generation Punks, Poets, and Royalty

By Jason Diamond

June 10, 2014

Looking at any single Jimmy De Sana photograph transports you back to an evening you may or may not have spent somewhere below 14th Street in Manhattan in the late 1970s, doing things you probably can’t talk about, meeting fascinating people, seeing a band like Television or Blondie playing at the height of their powers, then having to walk through the dangerous streets of a city that hardly resembles the place it has now become.

Throughout August 1, the Daniel Cooney Gallery in Manhattan is paying tribute to De Sana, who might be best known for shooting the cover of the Talking Heads album More Songs About Buildings and Food, by hanging some of his best shots on their walls, including portraits of everybody from William S. Burroughs to the former Queen and exiled Empress of Iran. Click through to preview the show.