120 pages Edited by Franklin Carbonatti, Angel Cheng, Jayson Larmand Photographs by Clayton Patterson, Cheryl Dunn, Alain Levitt, Nolan Zangas, Adam Zhu Designed by Franklin Carbonatti, Angel Cheng, Jayson Larmand 21.7 x 14 cm Language: English Paperback Publisher: Living Proof New York 2025
For over four decades, Tompkins Square Park has been the beating heart of the East Village, a crossroads where counterculture, community, and creativity collide. Skaters, squatters, punks, artists, activists, and generations of New Yorkers have shaped this iconic space, turning it into a stage for protest, a sanctuary for youth culture, and a living archive of the city’s shifting identity.
Tompkins Square Park: Forty Years brings together 120 pages of full-color photography spanning the 1980s to today, captured by five photographers whose perspectives testify to the park’s enduring impact. From Clayton Patterson’s raw documentation of the neighborhood’s turbulence, including his historic footage of the 1988 police riot, to Cheryl Dunn’s candid portraits of downtown life, Alain Levitt’s intimate snapshots of the early-2000s creative scene, Adam Zhu’s grassroots campaign to save the beloved skate spot, and Nolan Zangas’s portraits of a new generation, this book traces the park’s evolving ecosystem through those who lived it.
A celebration of resistance, reinvention, and community, this volume is both a tribute to a legendary New York landmark and a testament to the cultures that continue to thrive within its boundaries. Tompkins Square Park remains a place where history is made at street level: one photograph, one skate session, one act of defiance at a time.
