Latest York City’s streets hide legendary rock ’n’ roll moments you never knew were there — until Steve Birnbaum brings them back to life.
The Big Apple-based photographer and filmmaker is the brain behind @TheBandWasHere — a viral project that resurrects iconic album covers right where they were shot a long time ago.
Birnbaum tracks down where famous band photos were snapped, then goes back to those exact spots to re-create the shots — album covers, promo pics, you name it.
His feed is a roll call of NYC rock legends just like the Strokes, Talking Heads, Blondie, Ramones, Bob Dylan, and Simon & Garfunkel — all brought back to life right where the magic originally happened.
Think Bob Dylan strolling on the identical chilly Greenwich Village sidewalk in 1963, or the Ramones posing outside that gritty East Village wall in 1976, all perfectly framed as they’re today.
But his collection doesn’t stop there. He also has iconic images of the Notorious B.I.G., Bruce Springsteen, The Doors, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, Taylor Swift and more.
What excites Birnbaum most is reconnecting Latest Yorkers with the invisible soundtrack of their every day lives.
“It’s crazy how much you walk the streets and go past things … so lots of us walk by where Stevie Nicks once twirled or where Debbie Harry once stood … and don’t even notice.”
Birnbaum’s nostalgia-powered hustle taps into our obsession with “then-and-now” culture and that classic NYC pride to carry on to the past — especially the golden eras of music that helped define town’s identity.
His feed — he counts Blondie’s Chris Stein, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and SZA as fans — is a living museum of rock ’n’ roll history, proving that while skyscrapers sprout and neighborhoods morph, the soul of NYC music still lingers — for those who know where to look.
But don’t mistake this for a fast snap-and-post hustle. Birnbaum calls himself “a music historian” and makes it his ultimate priority to honor and credit each album cover’s original photographer.
He’s spent years chasing down the precise locations of legendary photo shoots, piecing together clues from old interviews, concert tour dates and band itineraries and even scouring Google Maps for hours.
“I do challenge myself and I try to seek out photos that may just be tough to do,” he said.
He even studies the unique photographer’s angle and sometimes finds himself crouching, contorting or lying on the bottom to nail the shot.
Birnbaum’s journey began with personal memories — family albums and snapshots from his youth — but quickly evolved right into a full-blown passion project after the seismic shift of 9/11.
“There was a cover of the Village Voice,” he recalls, “where an artist photographer held up an image of the World Trade Center just after the attacks. That inspired me artistically.”
What began as a quiet personal archive snowballed right into a vibrant chronicle of popular culture and music history, all anchored to the very streets of Latest York.
To uncover these sites, Birnbaum dives deep — and sometimes, a tiny detail may be the important thing.
“Once I was in search of the unique location for the shot of the Best Hits album from Simon & Garfunkel, I noticed Paul Simon was holding something that looked like an egg-shaped container for L’eggs pantyhose from the Eighties,” Birnbaum recalled. “However it turned out to be my biggest clue to finding where Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel stood within the photo.”
He said walking by an Upper East Side park “triggered my memory.”
“He was holding onto a part of a fence at 7 East 94th Street,” he said. “I used to be capable of track down the placement, which I never thought would still be around. There wasn’t lots to go from, nevertheless it was that little piece and detail.”
But often it’s a combination of intuition and persistence, plus knowing and loving NYC’s vast neighborhoods. “You may have to be crazy at this at times,” he laughed. “Latest York’s been tough.”
Town’s rapid transformation — from the Lower East Side to Chinatown to towering recent developments — forms a bittersweet backdrop to his work. Each photograph captures a moment frozen in time, but lots of those moments are fading as buildings vanish or get repurposed.
“As much as I like Latest York, it really has modified lots within the last five, 10 years,” he said.
His photos, often taken together with his iPhone or DSLR camera, function time machines, revealing the unseen layers beneath town’s concrete and steel.
For Birnbaum, that’s the true joy of his work.
“I do consider myself a music historian in regard to the pictures,” he said, noting he’s proud to preserve NYC’s wealthy musical legacy — one photo, one street corner at a time.
It’s also a reminder that irrespective of how much Latest York changes, its soul never fades.
“I would like people to look up and say, ‘Hey, I’m standing where music legends once stood,’” he said. “That connection, that history, is so essential.”
5 NYC locations for legendary albums
- Led Zeppelin: “Physical Graffiti,” (1975), 96 St. Marks Place
- Bob Dylan: “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” (1963), middle of Jones Street, 50 feet from West Fourth Street
- Ramones: “Rocket to Russia,” (1977), back alley off First Street behind John Varvatos (formerly CBGB), 315 Bowery
- Neil Young: “After the Gold Rush,” (1970), northwest corner of Sullivan Street and West Third Street
- Simon & Garfunkel: “Best Hits” (1972), 7 E. 94th St.
