1980s NYC Steven Siegel (PHOTOS)

Photographer Steven Siegel’s pictures of 1980s New York City and its surrounding boroughs may look completely unrecognizable to many, but to a handful of New Yorkers, they spark memories.

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Imagine a NYC where Bushwick, Brooklyn is virtually nonexistent. Imagine a city that has the true New York authenticity and echoes the foundation of the stereotypes that made New York City the “most dangerous city” in the world. In short, Siegel’s photographs echo that hip-hop adage: keepin’ it real – sometimes too real! 

Before Times Square became the neon Disneyland it is today, before every “hipster” and every Carrie Bradshaw wannabe on earth believed coming to this city would be like living in a dream, there were burnt out buildings, decrepit highways, holes in bridges, broken piers, trashed subways and much, much, worse.

Siegel captured that.

Siegel’s photos present an authentic and bygone New York, a sense of reality for old New Yorkers who deal with those who fail to see the truth behind the “New York Dream.” 

It’s an amazing collection of the raw and classic New York.

Check out more pictures from his collection here. 

SOURCE: Gothamist