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- Clown Car at the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus NY, NY (April 1977)
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- Sun Bathers, Brighton Beach Parking Lot, Brooklyn, NY (May 1979)
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- Riding the Coney Island Cyclone During Son of Sam Summer, Brooklyn, NY (August 1977)
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- CBGB, NY, NY (April 1977)
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- Jiveguy on Williamsburg Subway, Brooklyn, NY (March 1978)
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- Crowning the Plainedge, High School Prom Queen, Huntington Town House, Huntington, NY (June 1976)
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- Swinging in the Den with Stan ‘the Man’ Leffler. The Mystery Club, North Massapequa, NY (September 1975)
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- King Shalom’s Rubies (The Mystery Club), Seaford, New York (June 1975)
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- The Meisler, Forkash & Cash Clan Welcoming a Sweet New Year, North Massapequa, NY, (Rosh Hashanah 1974)
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- Self-Portrait, Whopping it up with Leslie After Chauffeuring Mitch to the Prom, Huntington, NY (June 1976)
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- Self-Portrait, My Childhood Bedroom Mirror, North Massapequa, NY (February 1976)
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- Self-Portrait. Playmate Hostess, NY, NY (December 1978)
These photos are from my book Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ’70s Suburbia & The City. Here is an excerpt from my introduction:
My grandparents came from Eastern Europe to escape pogroms and persecution. It was the Great Depression and both families were poor. My dad, Jack Meisler, married Sylvia Schulman on furlough from the Coast Guard during WWII. Thanks to the GI Bill, they bought a home on the site of a former Chinese vegetable farm in Massapequa, Long Island. They helped found Congregation Beth El, were Presidents of The Knights of Pythias, Pythian Sisters and Temple Sisterhood. Best of all, they co-founded The Mystery Club: eleven couples that went on adventurous outings to places like a haunted house, séance, nudist colony, and gay bathhouse. Brother Mitch arrived during 1st grade, and soon after, I got my first camera, The Adventurer.
In 1969 I went to Buffalo State and studied Art Ed. In In grad school at the University of Wisconsin I studied illustration and photography. After graduation, I moved to New York and studied with Lisette Model. The city was in fiscal and social turmoil, and I was in transition and chaos myself. My parents were divorcing, and I’d recently ‘come out.’ My cousins introduced me to artists, writers, musicians, feminists, activists and intellectuals in East Harlem and the Lower East Side.
In 1977 I went to The COYOTE Hookers Masquerade Ball, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, CBGB, discos, Fire Island, and the Hamptons. The gay and feminist movements were in full swing. I photographed the streets by day and the clubs at night. I received a Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) Artists Grant, and began working for the American Jewish Congress, photographing Jewish NY and my own family roots. I got a hostess job at Playmate, then Winks and The Magic Carpet.
CETA ended in 1979. I did freelance illustration and taught art in public schools. I also began a relationship with a Massapequa girl — the designer of My ‘70s: Sweet and Sassy.. The book encapsulates my coming of age: The Bronx, suburbia, The Mystery Club, dance lessons, Girl Scouts, the Rockettes, the circus, school, mitzvahs, proms, feminism, Disco, Go-Go, Jewish and LGBT Pride, the New York streets, friendship, family and love.