About the Artist
Bill Bernstein is a New York photographer whose career has moved between two worlds: spontaneous documentary photography and carefully created portraiture. He began at The Village Voice in the 1970s, where he first photographed New York nightlife. His images from Studio 54, Paradise Garage, and other legendary clubs looked beyond the celebrities and velvet ropes to the freedom, individuality, and sense of community he found on the dance floor.
Alongside this work, Bernstein built an extensive career photographing musicians, artists, and cultural figures. He spent nearly two decades traveling as Paul McCartney’s tour photographer and has created memorable portraits of many of the defining performers of his time. Whether observing life as it unfolds or constructing an elaborate group portrait, Bernstein’s work is always about people and the worlds they create around themselves.
His photographs have been exhibited internationally and are held in museum and private collections. In 2017, he was invited to speak about his New York nightlife work at the Library of Congress. He lives and works in Brooklyn.
