Jean-Michel Basquiat on East 5th Street, Lower East Side, New York City (1981)

Basquiat walked the streets of the Lower East Side in 1981 with a raw energy that matched the neighborhood’s grit. Clad in thrifted layers, his presence on East 5th Street near Avenue D blended easily with the local scene of punks, artists, and outsiders. The buildings were tagged with graffiti—some of it his own early SAMO messages. Basquiat’s rise was just beginning, but he was already known in downtown circles. The streets around him were filled with boarded-up storefronts, squats, and nightclubs pulsing with underground culture. His footsteps on the cracked sidewalks echoed a generation pushing art beyond galleries and into the raw city.