For Pride month, I wanted to script a few blog posts that are connected, but also their own small detours from the chosen features we usually see in the media. We are in an era of incessant cancel culture over everything Gay Pride, So I found this artist takes us out of the present and into something that is more nostaligia.
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| Johnny New York 1962 |
Even then, in the 1960's, there has always been tension between what is creative photography vs. what is perceived as erotic art. It goes back centuries! What is the distinction between a naked Greek statue in marble vs. a Black & White photo capturing a silhouette in an alluring pose? We can all argue over the term "tasteful", but it still remains a creative art form. It just becomes a matter of if you are willing to buy or appreciate.Danny Fitzgerald was a New York City photographer who captured the streets of the city in much the same way that Vivian Maier did. She has become renowned in the last decade; Fitzgerald remains more of a casualty that is dismissed. His genre were the street gang punks and cruisers of Brooklyn. He called them his "demi-gods." He started by capturing their images on the streets and parks of Brooklyn, New Jersey and even in the nearby woods of PA. Over time he "upgraded" and persuaded them into his studio space in Carroll Gardens which he dubbed Le Demi Dieux. There was also his sexy and younger partner, Richard Bennett, they would entice the young men into settings that were more glamorous and pushed them towards more erotic poses. No one is aware that sexual favors were exchanged, but the gushing over their sensuality certainly made a dent in their blue-collar egos. At the time in the early 1960's it was considered Beefcake vintage and only appeared in seedy rags like Muscles a Go Go and The Young Physique. It has taken a full 50 years to resurface and be viewed in an entirely different light.
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| Stef, New York 1963 |
Somehow photos were found and curated for a first-time exhibition by Steven Kasher Gallery in New York back in 2014. It sounds as if enough interest came of it that they are also published into a coffee table book of full-page photographs.
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| Tommy, 1964 |
I find that the pictures have both an innocence and an inherent sensuality. I am guessing most of the models were late teens and maybe early 20s, but not much older than that. In spite of being street toughs, I assume most of them are only discovering whatever their sexuality is. None of it feels manufactured. It's as if the boys from West Side Story were given a magazine feature in Life! Fascinating.
Here is a link to the original blog article where I found them:
Alain Truong: Photography
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| Richard Bennet, Danny's partner 1962 |
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| Anthony, 1963 |
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Orest, New York 1960
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