Paul Zone was a mere 14-years old when he crashed right into the epicenter of New York City’s fabled underground music world. It was the early 70s and with his Polaroid Brownie and Instamatic in tow, he followed his older brothers Miki and Mandy from Brooklyn to the Bowery, where he documented the grungy, glittery scene as only a teenager with a cheap camera could. Playground: Growing Up in the New York Underground (Glitterati) is a collection of Zone’s rarely-seen images which chronicle the downtown scene’s evolution from glam to punk to commercial success. Zone, who also fronted his brothers’ band the Fast, tirelessly snapped photos from the inner circle while many of his friends stood on the cusp of fame — Blondie, the Ramones, New York Dolls, Anna Sui, Stephen Sprouse, Richard Hell, Patti Smith. Also in Playground is Zone’s recounting of his own adolescence, a coming-of-age story woven through genuinely comedic anecdotes juxtaposing family life in conservative Boro Park with sweaty late nights on the Lower East Side. ‘Going to school at 8am was rough,’ he laments, ‘especially because I had to remove my makeup for school.’ Zone goes into engrossing depth, talking about his progressive mother, who helped create much of his glitzy wardrobe, his alcoholic, blue collar father, and his kooky, lovable grandmother, a ‘complete freak’ who wore hula skirts and wedding gowns and hosted sex-themed Tupperware parties. |