Shot by both sides

Fascinating views by a young foreigner of NYC people in the 1980s

New York has always and still attracts fortune seekers, artists and modern nomads from all over the world. Just as Cornelia Wilhelm who at the age of 19 set out in 1985 from Switzerland to seek her fortune in the city that never sleeps. While her day-job was to play assistant at shootings for the Pirelli calendar, at night she photographed the low nightlife, the offbeat music scene, as well as the everyday world of the Bronx and Harlem.

Her place of retreat was Coney Island, where yesterday's aging amusement parks were lined up one after the other and the funfair showmen hyped their appeal with rough charm to the working class visitors. In her photographs Wilhelm captured numerous little moments, creating a portrait of New York from the perspective of a hungry-for-life young woman, but also a documentary of people living on the other side of glamour in an always fascinating place at a very special time.

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