Paper

16x20 inch Black & White print on Epson Art Cotton Smooth 250 gram paper. From the NYC Village Halloween Parade, 1982–86.

Kim Hastreiter, a pivotal figure in New York's downtown creative scene, is seen here participating in the Village Halloween Parade during the mid-1980s. This black-and-white capture, rendered in the rich, expressive tones of Kodak Tri-X film, shows Hastreiter and her companions integrated into a "paper" themed display, likely heralding the 1984 launch of her storied publication. The scene is illuminated by the sharp, brilliant burst of a professional strobe light, which picks out the intricate newspaper-collaged costumes and a distinctive polka-dot umbrella against the dark city night. Shot with a 35mm Pentax, the photograph preserves a moment of exuberant guerrilla marketing and street theater, where the founders of Paper magazine used the parade's energy to share their new vision of art and culture. The grainy, high-contrast aesthetic perfectly mirrors the raw and inventive spirit of the era's independent media movement.