David Armstrong

David Armstrong (1954–2014) was an American photographer based in New York. Associated with the Boston School, his work has been influential in photography, art and fashion. He was celebrated for his tender and unabashed portraits of the people closest to him.

Armstrong started taking pictures in 1974 and photographed poets, artists, actors, musicians, activists, friends, lovers and acquaintances. Living in downtown Manhattan, partying at the Mudd Club, hanging out at the beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts, they included the actor and gallerist Patti Astor, artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Greer Lankton, Mark Morrisroe, Jack Pierson, Tabboo! and Christopher Wool, actor and filmmaker Vincent Gallo, photographer Nan Goldin, writer Gary Indiana, lawyer and civil rights activist William Kunstler, musicians Arto Lindsay, Philippe Marcade, John and Evan Lurie, model and Vogue editor Lisa Love, tattoo artist Mark Mahoney, artist and fashion designer Maripol, poet and art critic Rene Ricard, transgender model Terri Toye, artist and writer Cookie Mueller and the filmmaker John Waters.

Over four decades and in a time of societal turmoil, Armstrong generated both a style-defining portrait of his subculture and a deeply moving panorama of beauty, queerness and intimacy. This first overview of Armstrong's oeuvre in Europe will include numerous unpublished photographs.

All images courtesy David Armstrong Archive