Customer Reviews

Limelight: A Greenwich Village Photography Gallery and Coffeehouse in the Fifties : A Memoir

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A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Helen Gee when she gave a talk before a New York City camera club. I greatly enjoyed both her great sense of humor and knowledge of photography, including its history. All of these are on display in her memoir. Although Helen Gee is not a great stylist, she tells her story in an engaging, conversational style. You share in her numerous disappointments and triumphs, as she struggles to survive as a young single mother, intent on pursuing a career in photography. The book is filled with humorous anecdotes about famous photographers such as Edward Steichen, Lisette Model, Robert Frank, and her problems with greedy landlords and petty gangsters. Anyone who wants an excellent view of life in Manhattan in the 1940's and 1950's as well as a glimpse into an important period in American photography will find this book quite captivating.

Even though I missed the heydey of lower Manhattan by about 20 years, the concept of The Limelight intrigued me. Reading Helen Gee's story did not leave me disappointed. As a former single mom, I admire Gee's gumption and resourcefulness in realizing a dream while still keeping the homefires burning, especially during the 1950s. Possibly, without realizing it, Gee also provides the reader with a realistic account of the trials of starting a new business. As a genre, biographies can often fall into boring soliloquys, hero worship, cattiness and/or sometimes, out & out lies. The two things I liked most are Gee's sense of humor and the conversational style she takes with the reader.

This book is a fascinating memoir of a self-made woman with an original story. Her life comes through honestly while she tells an important story of the photography scene in NY in the 1950s. For anyone interested in Photography this book is like gossiping over a cup of coffee. I really enjoyed it and read it in a couple of sittings. What Helen Gee did was important and it has been overlooked by photographic historians. She has included a very useful (and impressive) list of exhibitions held at Limelight in the back of the book. It is published by The University of New Mexico Press which is doing a wonderful job of providing the most interesting books on photography.

That's a pretty strong statement right? But it is true. This book and the woman who wrote it is simply extraordinary. The time in which she opened the Limelight was not a time that was easy for women in the world of Photography, or even the world in general. She started a business from the ground up and set an example for future generations of women photographers and small business owners. I highly recommend this book to lovers of Photography. She has intimate knowledge of some of the "Masters of Photography". The best part of the book is sadly the end of it, and the last exhibit of the seven years that the Limelight was in business. Her last show was a collection of prints by the Victorian age Female Photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron. A woman who was also an inspiration. I am so inspired by this book and great woman, that I am considering opening up a small Photo Gallery.