Ever since I started my career with America's foremost weekly newspaper, The Village Voice in the 1970s, I’ve been passionate about representing contemporary cultures and subcultures through the medium of photography.

I was asked to speak at the Library of Congress about the relevance of my work and it's place in representing the culture and time period of the late 1970s in New York.

From the vibrant and expressive hedonism and inclusion of New York City’s disco era to 15 years touring at Paul McCartney’s side as his personal photographer, I’ve captured the previously unseen dynamics and subtleties of individual lives.

You had to be there but if you weren’t, my photographs can take you there.

Many of my images are time capsules of unique periods in recent American history which saw the ferment of post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS culture and the expression of sexual liberation, Women’s Liberation, and Civil Rights.

My work is presently featured in numerous museums, galleries, publications and platforms around the world.

My style is unflinching and open—like the photographers who have long influenced me: Richard Avedon, William Klein, Diane Arbus and Irving Penn. Classic and timeless. 

Whether I’m shooting rockstars like U2, business titans like Richard Branson, or the homeless of the Bowery Mission, every photograph cuts through public persona to offer real faces and glimpses of the unguarded. It’s all about the immediacy of the moment.

I invite you to time travel with me, to visit the tribes of our time, to enjoy our most imaginative epochs, and should you wish — to own a piece of history.

Bill Bernstein