Pictures of gay men cruising
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“Just make it legal and accept us” became the most important political demand of the modern gay movement. It became replaced with this need to be just like straight people, to get married, have kids and buy houses. Since then, we have come under pressure to lose the aggressive, hedonistic aspects of gay identity, to stop asserting our difference, our promiscuity, and our refusal to change. New York shut down its bathhouses, gay parties became private, and this whole world became hidden again. The public nature of gay life was forced back into the shadows. A few years later, the Aids crisis took hold. Looking back on these images now, there’s a poignancy they never had at the time, almost like looking at photos of families before the Holocaust. It was about being generally “bad” and proud of it. The whole idea of gay liberation in 1970s was to promote promiscuity, to stick a finger up at heteronormativity, family life, procreation and mortgages. It was a force uniting a political movement. I wanted them to know I’m gay too and that I was drawn to them in some way. I wasn’t trying to observe something in a neutral way. He just looked like a college boy, a little scruffy, quite athletic, but with a gay edge that I loved. Around that time, gay men turned en masse to a look that became known as the “clone” - all checkered shirts and moustaches. This guy was just one of many men I shot in those days, but his charm was in how regular he was. This guy just looked like a scruffy college boy Around that time, gay men turned en masse to a look that became known as the 'clone'. This guy's charm was in how regular he was. It was a vicarious thrill to go up to someone and shoot them. I was in a semi-monogamous situation so I had to tone it down, and for me, the camera became a substitute: instead of sleeping with them, I was getting their picture. The drugs weren’t as serious in those days, so you could keep going. There were trucks stationed along the piers where you could go and hook up any night of the week. You could be walking your dog, going to a gallery, picking up groceries, and you’d meet someone. People were just having casual sex with whoever went by.
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It was literally too many men, not enough time. I’d been part of gay causes at university in Montreal, but the scale of what was going on in New York was utterly unlike anything I’d seen. I ditched the MBA and enrolled in photography school. I was in New York to do an MBA, but I soon realised that my future wasn’t in finance.