Photographer/writer John Jonas Gruen and his wife, the painter Jane Wilson, occupied a unique place in the Hamptons of the late 1950s and l960s. They became the nucleus of a brilliantly gifted group of painters, writers, poets and musicians, who would gather in the Gruen home in Water Mill during a period when all the arts were in ferment and when being a part of the Hamptons' creative milieu meant witnessing the rise of many vibrant and astonishing new American art forms.



Thanks to the physical beauty and miraculous light of the east end of Long Island, artists such as Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Roy Lichtenstein, Fairfield Porter, Larry Rivers, Jane Freilicher, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, Jim Dine, Grace Hartigan, Saul Steinberg and Jane Wilson, among so many others, forged art works of extraordinary originality and vision; poets such as Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch, James Schuyler and Barbara Guest came to the region to commune with sea, earth and sky and create poems that celebrated individuality of soul and spirit. And musicians such as Morton Feldman, Lukas Foss and Leonard Bernstein all found the compelling aura of the Hamptons both inspiring and nourishing.



In this album of photographic memories, John Jonas Gruen captures some of this heady aura as he photographs his many friends and party guests singly and in groups on his Water Mill patio, in his house, on the beach and elsewhere, offering a glimpse of what it was like back then . . . when everyone was young and beautiful and possessed of that special sense of well-being that allowed for at least the "look" of a charmed Hampton life.

As Gruen puts it in his introduction to "Young in the Hamptons," "These pictures certainly don't speak of artistic struggle nor of poverty nor of personal upheaval, although all of us did struggle and most of us were poor and quite a few of us experienced personal upheaval. But it is the miracle of the camera that it can record a reality subject to many interpretations. Basically, my camera has recorded people at their happiest and most positive."

"Young in the Hamptons" is a self published book of photography heralds a certain historic resonance, for it was a time when artists shared a togetherness and moments of conviviality that in these electronic, computerized times may be close to vanishing. It was a time when artists genuinely loved being together and when "drinks at the Gruens" meant that the click of a camera would invariably record this beguiling togetherness for posterity.

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Find out how to get your book of photography published.

Albert Russo has written many books in English, published by Donham Books and Xlibris, among which is the photography book Saint-Malo With Love. In this self published book, Russo showcases the beauty of the French city, viewed through the lenses of his camera.

Check out this self published book of photography and Russo's other published books.

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Find out how to get your book of photography published.