This work was made with my partner Kristen Hatgi in the fall of 2009 while staying at the Hotel Chelsea. I am a big fan of the Chelsea. To me it is NYC, one foot in the gutter and one foot in royalty. I lived there in the early 80s. Stanley the long time desk manager would always greet me loudly "Stieglitz". Little did he or I at the time know my great grandfather James L. Breese who founded the Camera Club of NewYork was very close to Alfred Stieglitz.

Every time i stay at the Chelsea i think this will be my last. It is rapidly upgrading. Hotel Chelsea bohemia life is slipping away. Where in NY can you still get a room for under 150 a night ? Much less a room that has two sets of double french doors and a fireplace. Its close to an end of an era with the Chelsea. The north light is magnificent. And only in the Chelsea could we have a darkroom in the closet and drip black forever staining silver nitrate on floors. (the floors are beat up blackened wood). We are lucky to have close friends who live in the Chelsea they introduced us to wonderful set of actor artists and models for this series of portraits. Artistic magic is in the air in that hotel. I could live and make work there for the rest of my life.
 

MARK SINK

Kristen on Balcony, Hotel Chelsea, 2009
Aluminum tintype, 6 x 6"

Tom Baril
Katia Chausheva
John Dugdale
David Lebe
Jerry Ott
Mark Sink & Kristen Hatgi
Jock Sturges
Nana Watanabe