CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/27/2014

In Memoriam: David Armstrong

Photographer David Armstrong died this weekend—on October 25, 2014, of liver cancer—at the age of 60. One of the key artists of the "Boston School," which also included Nan Goldin, Jack Pierson and Mark Morrisroe, Armstrong is best known for his intimate, sexually charged portraiture and a life hard lived. Featured photograph, "Dylan," (2008) is reproduced from 615 Jefferson Avenue, Damiani's 10-year retrospective of Armstrong's photographs of beautiful boys who came to stay with him in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn or his farm upstate while working on fashion photographs. In an interview published in the book, photographer Ryan McGinley asks Armstrong about his return to photography, and New York, in 1990. Armstrong responds, "Nan taught me: 'You have to look at a picture and think, Could anyone else have taken this? Aside from you? If someone could have, it’s no good for you. Just get rid of it. Is it yours? Is it possible anyone could have taken it but you?"