Posted Feb 24, 2010 @ 05:46 PM
Sex and nostalgia, according to gallery owner Howard Yezerski, are why the exhibit, “Boston: Combat Zone 1969-1978,” has attracted art connoisseurs and novices alike.
Boston’s once infamous red-light district, like New York’s Times Square, has long been purged of most of its “unsavory” businesses and colorful habitues. However, the works of three photographers who captured the adult entertainment area’s essence during its heyday are featured together in a tantalizing look back.
The black-and-white images by Roswell Angier, Jerry Berndt and John Goodman seem like stills from a Boston-themed film noir, capturing intimate scenes of a seedy, yet vibrant, world that has mostly disappeared.
Goodman said that during the ’70s he had a studio at the Bradford Hotel near the Combat Zone. He was attracted to the area because he had “always been drawn to urban energy” and he “liked the…madness.”