CHELSEA HOTEL

The classic photo book portraying the denizens of the Chelsea Hotel in all their eccentric bohemian glory back in print in a revised and expanded edition When the young Brazilian photographer Claudio Edinger moved into the Chelsea Hotel in the late 1970s on the recommendation of a friend he was just looking for a place to live He had little idea that this twelve story Victorian Gothic pile at 222 West 23rd Street had been for almost a century one of Manhattan s chief bohemian enclaves where authors writers and musicians lived played and sometimes even worked But Edinger was quickly fascinated by his new surroundings and turned his lens on hotel residents both celebrated like Warhol superstar Viva stylist and nightlife impresario Susanne Bartsch and composer Virgil Thomson and obscure from Dan the mime to Corey the porn starlet Together these portraits taken in their subjects memorably decorated living quarters form an invaluable record of the Chelsea Hotel community at one of the peaks of its flourishing under legendary owner manager Stanley Bard Chelsea Hotel met with immediate acclaim on its original publication in 1983 Edinger s absorbing black and white photographs were wonderfully complemented by an introduction from Pete Hamill d