Last night both Julia Calfee and Ed Hamilton took to the mini stage at McNally Robinson to talk about the Chelsea Hotel. Julia showed slides from her luscious book Inside: The Chelsea Hotel. The 81 black and white unposed photos from her book are all shot in natural light and printed the old fashioned way, in a darkroom. Even though the photos have been taken within the past four years, they seem to capture a bygone era--possibly the hotel's last gasp of bohemian glory.
Ed read a chapter entitled The Truth About Those Fancy Hotels from his gem of a book, Legends of the Chelsea Hotel. He told me later that he likes to read that story because it conveys the craziness of the hotel. The audience had questions about the artistic energy that pervades the hotel, the "millions of dollars worth of artwork" on the walls, and the photo of Rose Wood. My favorite question was when someone asked Julia and Ed if they were ever worried that the lack of sanitary conditions would put their health at risk. Ed said he had worried more about the junkies, but now it's the new management that concerns him.--Sherry Mazzocchi
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