By Ace Backwards Larry Wolfley was a well-known local photographer back in the 1990s who specialized in taking black-and-white photos of the young gutter punks hanging out on Telegraph Avenue, as well as the punk rock scene at Gilman St. where he was house photographer. . . Somewhat of an anomaly as this old guy hanging out at these youth culture scenes. Wolfley was born during World War II in the 1940s, and came of age before the hippies, let alone the punks. Raised in a little town in Illinois, he never lost the manner of a Midwestern farmboy -- somewhat plain and unassuming in appearance (he wisely never tried to adopt the flamboyant personas of the young punks he documented) -- and even bore a slight resemblance to the farmer in the American gothic painting.
As an "outsider" from the scene he covered, Wolfley often reminded me of a hunter on Safari, stalking exotic wild game. And he even usually wore his trademark safari vest with plenty of pockets that were usually loaded with prints of his latest photos. And whenever he showed up on the scene he was often quickly surrounded by a group of people avid to see his latest shots, which he gave out freely. And I'm sure those photos are still treasured by many people to this day -- for a lot of those street kids, it's probably the only record that still remains of the lives they once led, and the friends and lovers they once knew. I felt a bit of a kinship with Wolfley, as the subjects of his photos often over-lapped somewhat with the photos me and Duncan were taking of the Telegraph street people. Though, unlike Wolfley, we weren't "outsiders," but were immersed within the scene we were documenting, so it went a bit beyond straight-up voyeurism. And we used a cheap $30 Kodak instamatic camera -- couldn't even afford to get the film developed half the time, let alone buy an expensive camera and darkroom. Though I was always a big fan of Wolfley's photos, and published a bunch of them as a centerspread in one of the issues of our Telegraph Street Calendar. I actually visited Wolfley once, briefly, at his house in Berkeley (I had used one of his photos as the cover shot for my Surviving On The Streets book, and was dropping off a copy for him). He lived in a very quiet, unassuming neighborhood (much like his persona). By all accounts -- aside from his somewhat exotic hobby -- he lived a fairly conventional lifestyle, married with a kid and working a normal job as a carpenter and landscaper. Though apparently his eventually-to-be ex-wife frowned on his hobby and considered the people he photographed "evil." Which may have been a bit harsh, but there was certainly no question that it was a wild crowd Wolfley had immersed himself in during his off-hours, with plenty of drugs, drinking, dope-slamming, and general debauchery among that scene. Though somehow Wolfley managed to document it while standing apart from it. Out of curiosity I googled around to see whatever had happened to him. Now 81 and living in Bangkok, Thailand with his live-in girlfriend. Larry Wolfley. . . Here are some of his photos. http://www.larrywolfley.com/
1 Comment
Trey
12/10/2023 10:40:04 am
Damn I was in Berkeley in 94. I wish I can find pictures of me and a few friends from back then.
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