Arlene Gottfried

• Name — Arlene Gottfried • Birth Name — Arlene Harriet Gottfried • Born — 26 August 1950 • Birthplace — Coney Island, New York, U.S. • Died — 8 August 2017 • Place of death — Manhattan, New York, U.S. • Education — Fashion Institute of Technology • Resting Place — Beth Moses Cemetery • Field — Photography • Relatives — Gilbert Gottfried (brother)

Born in Coney Island, she was the daughter of Lillian (Zimmerman), a homemaker, and Max Gottfried, who ran a hardware store with his own father, above which the family lived. Gottfried was the older sister of comedian and actor Gilbert Gottfried (1955–2022) and Karen Gottfried. When she was nine, Arlene moved to Crown Heights, where she became heavily influenced by the nearby, fast-growing Puerto Rican community. Later in the 1970s, she moved with her Jewish immigrant family to the neighborhoods of Alphabet City and the Lower East Side. When Gottfried was a teenager, her father gave her an old 35 mm camera, which she eventually took to Woodstock, even though she said, "I had no clue what I was doing". She credited her upbringing for giving her the ability to get intimate photographs of strangers: "We lived in Coney Island, and that was always an exposure to all kinds of people, so I never had trouble walking up to people and asking them to take their picture." Gottfried graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology taking photography courses.

In 1991 while on assignment Gottfried photographed the Eternal Light Community Singers, eventually singing gospel with them on the Lower East Side. Gottfried also sang gospel with the Jerriese Johnson East Village Gospel Choir. She was a regular patron of Nuyorican Poets Café. She was also a known friend of Miguel Piñero.

Gottfried died on August 8, 2017, from complications of breast cancer at her home in Manhattan at the age of 66 surrounded by friends and family.