German photographer Stephan Erfurt fell in love with photography in 1978 while exploring the streets of Paris with his father’s camera. Alone in the city and still learning French, the camera gave him courage and confidence, inspiring him to become what he describes as a “visual explorer”.
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Erfurt stayed true to this approach when he moved to New York City’s infamous Alphabet City in 1984. “Our back window faced a burned down house and our front window looked toward Tompkins Square Park where a lot of drug dealing was going on,” says Erfurt, who grew up in a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia.
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Although it was quite a change of scenery, the photographer found an oasis nestled away in the building’s roof garden. “We spent many evenings there with friends, having barbecues, drinking gin and tonics, and with our heads in the clouds above New York,” Erfurt remembers.
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