Series III: Friends, Associates, and Other Material Not Directly Related to the MacLises, 1960s-2010

Scope and content:

This series gathers material by and related to figures who in many, though not all, cases do appear elsewhere in the archive, but where said material has little or no discernible connection to the MacLises. The bulk of this series concerns the photographer, poet, countercultural touchstone, and friend of the MacLises, Ira Cohen, whose own subseries includes writing (published and draft texts), art and design work, correspondence, interviews, legal documents, and ephemera. Of particular interest are his photographs, many of Cohen's then-partner Petra Vogt as well as of William S. Burroughs and his circle, but perhaps most notable are those from Cohen's famous "Mylar Chamber." The chamber was a small theatre in Cohen's loft in which he photographed and filmed the reflections of various sitters and performers in sheets of Mylar––a stretched silvery plastic developed in the 1950s––that were attached to hinged boards, producing quintessentially hallucinogenic images. Jimi Hendrix, who Cohen also photographed in this manner, observed of the effect: "Looking at your pictures is like looking through butterfly wings." (Mylar photographs by Cohen of Angus and Hetty MacLise can be found in their respective "Photographs" subseries.) Figures other than Cohen are grouped in Subseries III.2, and listed by name where that name is known. Some prominent and recurring figures include Petra Vogt, Vali Myers, Piero Heliczer, Jack Smith, Roberto Francisco Valenza, Adrian Brooks, and Dana Young. That subseries also includes a number of works, texts, and documents by unidentified artists, as well as ephemera related to other avant-garde communities, networks, and scenes.

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