Allen Frame

Imagine looking through a photo book, studying the images, and suddenly realizing you are looking at a friend, long before you met. This is what happened to me with Allen Frame's book Fever. It was released in 2021, but the images date from the late 1970s and early 1980s. They show Frame's circle of artist friends, among them Nan Goldin, Robert Gober and Darrel Ellis, photographed in his home, in their studios, on the beach and on the streets of New York.

Partway through the book, I came to the portrait shown here: a young Butch Walker in a white bathrobe, gazing steadily into the lens. Further on, Butch appears again, this time with David Wawro, looking away. Decades later, I would meet them both and become their friend and neighbor in the Western Catskills.

A few weeks ago, I finally met Allen. He is a New York-based photographer and writer who also teaches photography and curates exhibitions, most recently Katharina Poblotzki's Closer to the Sun.