
The derelict past of New York City's Lower East Side is now but a memory as blocks of abandoned apartment buildings have given way to endless trendy eateries and $2,000 per month studio apartments.

But a photographer who once found herself living among the self-reliant squatters who made their DIY homes in the neighborhood in the 1990s is telling their stories through intimate portraits of the bygone era.

Ash Thayer's Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000 captures the bohemia as it was: an enclave of derelict buildings taken over by vibrant outcasts who used found materials and gumption to turn the city's cast-off properties into their homes.

Thayer's own experience squatting in the Lower East Side is evident in every photo. Hers was a rarefied vantage, one where the lens of an outsider would never have been welcome.

Kill City is a unique opportunity to experience New York City at a turning point, just before its last revolutionary vestiges faded away.

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Portrait of an era: Ash Thayer's book Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000 documents her experiences, and those of her cohorts, as a squatter in the Manhattan of the 1990s. Picture: Meggin and Jill Dancing, Fifth Street Squat, 1996

Squatters: The squatters of the Lower East Side made their homes in buildings long abandoned by the city following the downturn of the 1970s

Demolition days: The squatters used found materials, passed-on know-how and gumption to create homes where once lay only ruins Pictured: Toby on a Demolition Day, Fifth Street Squat, 1994 (left). Beer Olympics I, Williamsburg, 1994 (right)

Thayer herself lived in several LES squats, giving her unique access to people who were generally unwelcoming to outsiders. Pictured: Girl Reading in Doorway of Serenity House, 1997

Home: Squatters created homes in the derelict buildings, many of them working tirelessly to bring them up to code in hopes of claiming rights to the abandoned properties. Pictured: Meggin on Fire Escape, Fifth Street Squat, 1995

Thayer writes: 'It was a privilege to have my camera out and about and I did not take it for granted. I believed very strongly in what we were doing and I felt that I was living and breathing my ideals.' Pictured: Jen (on Bed), Fifth Street Squat, 1995 (left). Sqwert, Serenity House, 1997 (right)

Thayer's own experience squatting in the Lower East Side is evident in every photo. Hers was a rarefied vantage, one where the lens of an outsider would never have been welcome. Pictured: Mr. Potato Head Still Life, Fifth Street Squat, 1994

Pictured: Famous Nursing Felix, Seventh Street Squat, 1995 (left). Callie, Fifth Street Squat, 1994 (right)

The squats had minimal electricity and no running water but the tenacious and resilient inhabitants made do. Pictured: Maria and Violin in Serenity House Stairwell, 1997

The squatters of the Lower East Side were mostly evicted, but the hard work paid off for some who were eventually rewarded with their improved squats officially becoming co-ops. Pictured: Famous, Pregnant and Building Windows, Seventh Street Squat, 1994 (left)

Thayer's hardcover book of photography s Kill City: Lower East Side Squatters 1992-2000 comes out March 31. Pictured: Ryan on Couch (Toy), Fifth Street Squat, 1995

h/t Flavorwire