Gottfried’s images are full of beauty and sincerity. She captured her subjects from the fringes of New York society in a way that did not exploit or sensationalise, but instead understood and cherished. Of this, Daniel Cooney said, “even though she might have been photographing a Puerto Rican community or African-American gospel singers, I think she felt like she was one of them.” This sense of belonging with her subjects is evident in the photographs, wherein people appear to let their guard down and invite Gottfried in to capture them in a moment of complete truth.