Rapper Snoop Dogg is also pictured performing on stage at The Box nightclub while separate pictures show drag queens and revellers at venues across the city.
The images, which include Lady GaGa posing in a revealing outfit in 2007, appear in a book produced by a university professor who swapped academia to take an in-depth look at New York’s infamous club scene.
A convicted murderer covered in fake blood and a young Lady Gaga appear in a fascinating set of photos charting New York’s wild nightlife over the years.
A revealing set of photos has emerged charting New York’s wild nightlife. They include this chilling image of convicted murderer Michael Alig standing in front of a white sheet covered in fake blood and holding a drink at a party in the city
Glamor: Lady GaGa is pictured ten years ago in 2007 at a nightclub event in New York. The photo appears in a book documenting the city’s famed nightlife over the years
More recent photographs show rapper Snoop Dogg performing at The Box nightclub as part of a Fashion Week party in 2015
Performance: This image of drag queen Rose Wood also appears in the book of photographs produced by Victor P. Corona, a sociology professor at New York University
The book includes pictures of some of New York’s most famous party animals including convicted murderer Michael Alig. He is pictured here laughing maniacally as he walks around brandishing a knife
Night Class: A Downtown Memoir chronicles the journey of Victor P. Corona, a sociology professor at New York University who in 2011 decided to take an in-depth look at New York City nightlife, fully immersing himself in the clubs, pubs and bars of downtown New York.
One chilling image shows party animal and convicted murderer Michael Alig laughing maniacally as he walks around brandishing a knife. Another shows him standing in front of a white sheet covered in fake blood at a party.
Alig, a native of Indiana, and his roommate Robert ‘Freeze’ Riggs pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1997 in the killing and dismemberment of their fellow Club Kid Andre ‘Angel’ Melendez.
He was killed in the men’s Manhattan apartment and kept in the bathtub for nearly a week before Alig chopped up his body, stashed it in a suitcase and the pair threw the victim into the Hudson River.
Riggs was paroled in 2010 and Alig was released from prison in 2014.
The photos are included in a book by Victor P. Corona, a sociology professor at New York University who in 2011, that charts New York’s famous nightlife. They include images of the television personality and author James St James during a wild party
The pictures also show model and actress Jocelyn McBride and songwriter Breedlove at a photoshoot in New York in 2015
As well as the city’s wild nightlife, the photos also show this sculpture of Lady GaGa by the artist Jeff Koons. It is pictured at the launch party for her third album Artpop in 2013
The pictures show revellers Kenny Kenny and Armen Ra during a wild party in New York. The date of the picture is not known
Corona fully admits that he was never prepared for the life that awaited him when he started his research and witnessed ‘a sparkly mix of twirling models, queer art kids and glam rock devotees.’
‘I did not belong there,’ Corona says in the book. ‘Three years of dissertation research with the US Army, plus a year of working in Washington, DC, produced a dowdy cubicle rat version of me.
‘I wore wire-frame eyeglasses on a face dotted with acne and shaved my whole head down to shiny skin. My way too bony body was dressed in clothes plucked right out of the Gap’s sale racks Picture Gandhi in baggy khakis walking around the Pentagon.’
In the book, Corona investigates the glamour of New York nightlife. In interviews and outings with clubland revellers and influencers, Night Class exposes downtown’s perilous trappings of drugs, ambition, and power.
Famed clubber Ernie Glam is pictured semi-naked with black skin stickers on his torso as he enjoys a party night in New York
Dressed to impress: Another picture, believed to have been taken in the 1980s, shows two revellers at a nightspot in New York. The images are included in a book by a sociology professor at New York University
Performer Raven O is pictured in a dressing room ahead of a performance at The Box night club in Chrystie Street, New York in 2015
Corona said he witnessed ‘a sparkly mix of twirling models, queer art kids and glam rock devotees’ when he started examining New York’s wild nightlife
Red light: A reveller holds up a bottle of beer while others dance during a party at The Roxy in New York. It is not known when exactly the photo was taken
On show: Performers Suzie Hart, Kayvon and Anna Zand address the author’s university class at New York University in 2015
In the book, Corona investigates the glamour of New York nightlife. In interviews and outings with clubland revellers and influencers, Night Class exposes downtown’s perilous trappings of drugs, ambition, and power
But, the author admits, the experience taught him as much about himself as it did any of the people he spoke to.
‘Downtown is a petri dish for growing identities,’ he said.
‘Queer, trans, straight, glam, goth, punk, fetish, radical, butch, femme, preppy, spiritual, fairy, ambiguous, clown, absurd and so on. They all mix and mesh downtown. It’s a classic New York idea – sung by countless crooners from Frank Sinatra to Alicia Keys – that you can find yourself here.
‘Downtown is where I sought a new education, where night classes held in clubs, bars, galleries, apartments, stoops and all-night diners taught me about love, loss, and the real, living possibilities of identity.
‘It’s where a sociology professor managed to understand himself a little better and enjoy life a little more. As Petula Clark put it, the lights were much brighter there.’
