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Summer McClinton

Join us for a conversation with documentary photographer Clayton Patterson and author Julian Voloj in celebration of Lower East Side History month and the forthcoming graphic novel anthology about Clayton's contributions to the neighborhood, “Clayton: Godfather of Lower East Side Documentary,” published by Permuted Press.

Clayton Patterson is a Canadian-born artist, photographer, videographer and folk historian. Since moving to New York City in 1979, his work has focused almost exclusively on documenting the art, life and times of the Lower East Side in Manhattan. A contemporary of Basquiat and Keith Haring (who was a while his upstairs neighbor), Patterson was never interested in fame and financial success, but rather the outsider art scene. He has documented the drag scene and gangbangers, was CBGB’s unofficial videographer, co-founded the New York Tattoo Society, and famously filmed the Tompkins Square Riots, footage of which was recently used in the “Joker” movie. He and his partner Elsa Rensaa revolutionized the baseball hat when they began designing and fabricating custom baseball hats, which they sold in their gallery on 161 Essex Street.  His famous customers included actor Matt Dillon and Rolling Stone frontman Mick Jagger. In 2008, Patterson became subject of the documentary “Captured.” Patterson continues to document the history of the Lower East Side and has a radio show on 8Ball Radio.

Julian Voloj was born in Germany to Colombian parents. The award-winning author and photographer lived in Brussels, Belgium, before moving to New York in 2003. His parents as well as his own immigrant experience, identity issues and his Jewish heritage are recurrent themes in his work. In 2005, he had his first solo exhibition “Forgotten Heritage” at Bronfman Center in New York. He was also the only commissioned photographer for “A Living Lens” (Norton, 2007). His work has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stones, and many other national and international publications such as El Pais (Spain). In 2012, the German Consulate in New York showed a ten-year retrospective of his photography. Around this time, his artistic focus moved to graphic novels. Coming from a photo journalistic background, his focus became non-fiction narratives. His debut graphic novel "Ghetto Brother" (NBM, 2015, illustrated by Claudia Ahlering) documenting the 1971 gang truce that led to the creation of hip hop in the South Bronx was praised by Junot Diaz in the New York Times as one of the best books of 2016. “Joe Shuster” (Papercutz, 2018, illustrated by Thomas Campi) focused on the nearly forgotten Superman co-creator who infamously sold the rights to this ‘blueprint of all superheroes’ for $65 and lived most of his life in poverty. The Swiss Tageswoche named the book one of the most important comics of the 21st century. "Basquiat" (SelfMadeHero, 2019, illustrated by Soren Mosdal) focused on the artist’s struggles with fame and addiction and was named by The Comics Beat both as one of the best comics of 2019 and of the last decade.