You can practically smell the coconut oil: Photographer Thomas Hoepker takes us back to New York City in 1983 with this evocative image of a rooftop sunbather on a lonely tenement somewhere in Midtown.
It looks hot up there with the black tar roof. Note the TV antennas!
More of Hoepker’s New York photos spanning many decades can be seen here.
© Thomas Hoepker/Magnum Photos
Tags: concrete beach sunbathers, girls sunbathing roof, New York City in the 1980s, New York street photographers, rooftop sunbathing New York City, tar beach New York City, tenement roof, Thomas Hoepker
Ephemeral New York 
June 23, 2014 at 2:59 am |
i used to do that on top of my building on 112th and riverside back in the early 80s myself..best place to get a tan
June 23, 2014 at 4:31 am |
That could have been me if the rooftop was downtown. Guess you never know who’s watching.
June 23, 2014 at 6:04 am |
I saw a couple of sunbathers out today on tenement roofs…it’s what summer in New York when you’re broke is all about!
June 23, 2014 at 6:53 am |
the astonishing thing is that many of those tv antennas are still there! not working; people just don’t remove them! All over houses rooftops, too! Ugly when you can see them! Most don’t notice!
June 23, 2014 at 12:42 pm |
Ah the tar beach! Thanks for the memories…
June 25, 2014 at 1:47 am |
When staying at the Waldorf on the Lex Ave side, we could plainly see nude sunbathers across the street on their terrace.
July 11, 2014 at 7:08 pm |
NYC: Tar Beach
When I was first working in NYC, back in the early 80’s, sights like this were common from my office. In the 90’s, I worked across the street from Radio City Music Hall and the Rockettes would use the roof to sunbathe. We kept the binocul…
July 16, 2018 at 5:45 am |
[…] to host residents. What did New Yorkers do if they lived in a building without an official rooftop? Tar beach, of […]