It is famous as a gathering place for a generation of influential New York photographers, including W. Eugene Smith, Arthur Tress, Mary Ellen Mark, Les Krims, Judy Dater, Lisette Model and Lee Witkin.
[1] The Foundation was founded by photographer Maggie Sherwood in 1970 after she bought an old houseboat, painted it purple and offered it as a gallery and photo center for many of her friends.
The houseboat was originally moored at the 79th Street Boat Basin, but in later years it traveled up and down the Hudson River.
In 2009 the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at the State University of New York at New Paltz mounted a retrospective exhibition about the Floating Foundation, its influences and the photographers who were part of what happened there.
The catalog of the exhibition, Taking a Different Tack: Maggie Sherwood and the Floating Foundation of Photography ISBN 978-0-615-25833-1, includes many images of the photographers who met there and the houseboat itself.