By Helen Gee
Within the overdue Fifties, Limelight used to be the busiest coffeehouse in big apple and the one images gallery within the state. this can be the tale of Helen Gee's efforts to open Limelight and her struggle to maintain it afloat for seven years. the main figures in images seem during this story--Edward Steichen, Robert Frank, W. Eugene Smith, Berenice Abbott, and others--and so do the large photographic occasions of the interval: the outlet of The family members of guy, the e-book of The americans. Gee has her personal own tales in addition: elevating her Asian American daughter by myself, facing a landlord with underworld ties and bookies who did company within the corridor of her condominium apartment, and dealing with unwelcome advances, quixotic staff, and suicidal photographers. this is often additionally a portrait of a time while Greenwich Village used to be a middle of inventive task, while actors, writers, painters, and photographers have been a part of a burgeoning coffeehouse scene. images as an artwork shape was once entering its personal, and Limelight Gallery made background with a few seventy indicates. the tale of its seven years is a laugh and heart-breaking, fascinating and unusually filled with event.