Anthony Friedk photographed gay culture California the 1960s
Contents:
PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
* gay in 1960 *
“I was 19, vulnerable, young and puttg my own inty together, ” says photographer Anthony Friedk when reflectg on his first project, The Gay Essay, which documents gay culture Los Angel and San Francis between 1969-1972. What started, as a self-assigned project for a young photographer growg up Hollywood has now bee one of the most thentic portras of gay life Ameri om this perd. In 1969, the same year as the Stonewall rts New York Cy, a gay cultural revolutn was growg Ameri.
At the time, most pictns of gay men and women mastream media were found salac newspaper and tabloid articl, all of them reported om a murky distance. LIFE’s two-part seri Homosexualy Ameri om 1964, featured dark and shadowy photographs by Bill Eppridge. While growg up Hollywood, Freidk’s parents worked the film dtry and had close iends that led full openly gay liv.
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ACH OUT AS GAY
He saw that world as a “refuge” and a place where gays were “allowed to be themselv” more than any other place. But The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angel Gay Communy Servic Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and found the Gay Liberatn Front Los Angel 1969 where they mobilized the muny agast the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals.
” For Friedk, the goal was to move past many stereotyp and epen the reprentatn of gay dividuals of all typ.
“It was more about my sire to create a great set of pictur wh a heartfelt termatn to honor gay people, rpect them and their eedom, ” he says.