So far, we have experienced the publishing process first and foremost as a tool of relation — not only through the form of the book and the connections that unfold through the flow of its pages, but also through the endless conversations we have had the privilege to share with artists, archives, and institutions that have chosen Palermo Publishing as an interlocutor for their practice.

Within this frame, and with renewed excitement, Palermo Publishing is proud to present the latest book by author and poet Steve Turtell — Portraits and Places, a memoir in six chapters dedicated to the author’s coming of age within the vibrant downtown New York scene of the 1960s and 1970s.
Through a precise and tender gaze, Turtell revisits that creative landscape, tracing the contours of friendship, love, and artistic life that shaped a generation. For the first time in our catalogue, through the format of memoir, this book gives voice and visibility to a constellation of artists and friends whose lives and works continue to resonate today.

Portraits and Places offers six intimate, personal views of a time in New York that now, fifty years later, seems as distant as the lost continent of Atlantis. From the first Gay Pride March to Frank Zappa’s thirtieth birthday party, to the fracture of a treasured friendship, these essays depict a life as varied and luminous as the scenes and characters encountered.

The text is accompanied by eleven photographs by Peter Hujar from the Peter Hujar Archive, portraying several of the figures featured in the essays — including Charles Ludlam, Sheyla Baykal, and performers from the legendary Palm Casino Revue. Together, words and images unfold as a dialogue between memory and presence — a quiet act of preservation and affection, where what remains is the persistence of attention and care.

Steve Turtell is a native New Yorker. His 2012 poetry collection Heroes and Householders drew praise from critic Marjorie Perloff for its “subtle and charming poems.” He has served as Director of Public Programs at the Museum of the City of New York, the South Street Seaport Museum, and the New-York Historical Society, where he oversaw programming for numerous photography exhibitions.

Peter Hujar (1934–1987) is now recognized as one of the great American photographers of the twentieth century, best known for his black-and-white portraits of leading figures in New York’s downtown cultural scene during the 1970s and 1980s.

Portraits and Places is now available through a selection of our independent bookshop partners — Printed Matter (New York), Yvon Lambert (Paris), Ivorypress (Madrid), Leporello (Rome), and Public Knowledge (London). For readers in the United States, we kindly invite you to order through the Printed Matter website, while European orders can be placed directly via the Palermo Publishing website.