RIP Bob

October 4, 2011 5:52 PM

East Village photographer and all-around good guy Bob Arihood passed away last week. Bob chronicled the struggles and changes of the Tompkins Square Park neighborhood in photographs both online in his blogs, Neither More Nor Less, and Nadie Se Conoce , sold pictures and columns to the New York Times, and was often found on 7th St and Avenue A, in front of Ray's newstand, hanging out with a wide assortment of local characters. He documented the lives and experiences of the folks most people attempt to pass without making eye contact. He knew all their names and their stories.

He was assaulted by police during the 1988 riots in Tompkins Square Park when the police came to evict settlements of homeless from the park, and suffered from the injuries for the rest of his life.

A vigil is being held tonight at Ray's to honor his memory, with a funeral held in Indiana on Sunday.

Ray will keep a framed picture of Bob in the store.

The world sucks a lot more without him in it.

posted by mneekadon (7 comments total)

Bob was a meticulous documenter of things most people take for granted. The East Village is dying.
posted by monospace at 6:11 PM on October 4, 2011

You knew him, then.
posted by mneekadon at 6:38 PM on October 4, 2011

DAMN IT. This is not fair.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:32 PM on October 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

A photo Bob took.
posted by mneekadon at 8:12 PM on October 4, 2011

He was assaulted by police during the 1988 riots in Tompkins Square Park when the police came to evict settlements of homeless from the park, and suffered from the injuries for the rest of his life.

Oh, man. I was there that night (in the civilians outside the control zone). One difference -- I was in fact just thinking about -- between the cops at #OccupyWallStreet and Tompkins Square: In those days, they felt they had to put electrical tape over their badge numbers. I'm not sure what it says that nowadays, when they can be filmed by seven different cell phones, they don't do that anymore.
posted by dhartung at 10:27 PM on October 4, 2011

•
posted by dbiedny at 6:48 AM on October 5, 2011

One correction -- he hurt his back playing football when he was a teenager, not from getting pounded in TSP.
posted by mneekadon at 8:06 AM on October 11, 2011