Overview
Between 1979 and 1986āafter Stonewall and before the darkest days of the AIDS epidemicāthere was a period of exuberant and burgeoning gay life in places even then known as āgay paradises.ā There were others, but the best known were San Franciscoās Castro District, New Yorkās Christopher Street and Fire Island, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The joyāand pathosāof these tragically lost worlds is beautifully and vibrantly documented in this collection of compelling portraits and street scenes photographed by Nicholas Blair. As a teenager lured to San Francisco from New Yorkāvia hitchhiking to Buenos AiresāBlair lived in a hippie-style arts commune just across town from the Castro. With a Leica rangefinder camera loaned to him by a childhood friend, Blair began honing his craft as a photographer amidst the explosion of LGBTQ life that was rapidly eclipsing the hippies as the most visible (and photographable) counter-culture movement of the day.
Blair's revealing, evocative, and celebratory photos are a window into the outburst of pent-up celebration and (occasionally) riotous ebullience of theretofore closeted persons who had suddenly felt the door of tolerance opening a crack, and who were now leaning in, hard, to live life openly as their true and genuine selves.
Perhaps most ironic, viewed from todayās perspective of intersectionality, is how extensively, especially in the San Francisco images, the āhippieā background dovetails with, for example, the vibrant flamboyance of many of those in the Pride Parades. How many degrees of separation are there, really, between Ken Keseyās Merry Pranksters and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence?
If the specter of AIDS were not hanging over these photographs, it would be as if they were showing us a parallel universe where full equality under law for LGBTQ people could have come so much sooner.
As they stand, these historic images are time capsules of a few places in America, where, for the very first time, and for a very short while, it was okay to be gay.
This book title, Castro to Christopher (Gay Streets of America 1979-1986), ISBN: 9781648230349, by Nicholas Blair, Jim Farber, published by powerHouse Books (May 30, 2023) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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