My work took me to New York from London, briefly, for the first time in 1983. It was an exciting time to be there as the 'redevelopment' of the older districts was not yet in full swing. I was fascinated by the streets and the informal graphic dialogue in the form of graffiti and posters which covered a lot of the available space. I took these photographs using my Olympus XA camera and Kodachrome film. The pictures are very much those of a visitor and visual artist who was gripped by the gritty, hard side of this dynamic city.

My memory of the exact locations is sketchy but I walked a lot of miles around the lower East Side, Alphabet City and Midtown. Most of the photographs were taken in 1983 but I returned in November '84 and took some more.