Low Fidelity is a comprehensive exhibition and celebration for the release of Bobby Grossman’s photo book published by Waverly Press. Bobby’s legendary photos were taken in the 1970’s onwards and include photos of many icons of American culture, such as: Blondie, David Byrne, Andy Warhol, Fab5Freddie, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, The Ramones and Jean Michel Basquiat… just to name a few.
Bobby Grossman arrived on the New York scene in the mid-seventies with a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Beginning as an assistant to Richard Bernstein and working as a magazine illustrator, Grossman lived and worked from the Chelsea hotel, photographing the scenes at the Chelsea, at Warhol’s Factory, and C.B.G.B.’s. His punky photographic style made his pictures popular with many publications – Rolling Stone, Interview, Artforum, The New York Times, Soho Weekly News, The Village Voice and many more. His photos were picked up by clients such as MTV and Vogue. He also created promotional pictures for his artist friends, including Blondie, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, The Ramones, Robert Fripp and Talking Heads.
Grossman was the official photographer for Glenn O’ Brien’s TV Party. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Grossman was featured in exhibitions such as the seminal “New York/New Wave” exhibition at P.S. 1 Institute for the Arts, Colab’s legendary “Time Square Show.”, and “Beat Art” at the Grey Gallery at New York University. In 1996-1997 Bobby Grossman and Roberta Bayley curated the traveling photo exhibition “The Cool and the Crazy – Images of Punk”. In 2000, Grossman collaborated on the book “New York Beat”, documenting the film “Downtown 81”, starring Jean-Michel Basquiat. His photographs have appeared in numerous biographies, including those of Andy Warhol, William S. Burroughs, Lou Reed, Blondie and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His photos are featured in the documentary film “TV Party” which debuted at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. In 2006-2009 Grossman was part of the group exhibition – “Bande a part: New York Underground 60s 70s 80s.”, opening in Paris, then traveling to London, Los Angeles, Portland, Tokyo, Hong Kong and NYC. The catalog/book for “Bande a part” is available in the United States by Gingko Press.
Recently, his photographs illustrated the annual report of the Warhol Foundation, and the catalogs of the “East Village USA” show at The New Museum and “Basquiat” at The Brooklyn Museum. He is currently living in Palm Beach, Florida.
