Anthony Friedk photographed gay culture California the 1960s
Contents:
- PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
- MIDNIGHT FOR NEW YORK’S 1960S GAY COMMUNY?
- THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.
- GAY EROTIC STORI,[.1930-1960]
PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
“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. He saw that world as a “refuge” and a place where gays were “allowed to be themselv” more than any other place.
MIDNIGHT FOR NEW YORK’S 1960S GAY COMMUNY?
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. “In The Gay Essay I wanted to celebrate the gays that were livg openly, ” pecially at a time, the early days of the gay movement, followg the Stonewall rts. “It upset me tremendoly to see the ways gays were beg treated, ” he adds.
THEY LIVED A 'DOUBLE LIFE' FOR S. NOW, THE GAY ELRS ARE TELLG THEIR STORI.
” In 2014, The Gay Essay was first shown s entirety at the De Young Mm San Francis and was published as a book by the Fe Arts Mm of San Francis and Yale Universy Prs. “Everythg I love about photography is the gay say: the sense of the event, pturg the soul of the people, the journey, the procs, the unknowns, ” he says. ” Anthony Friedk‘s The Gay Essay is on view at Daniel Cooney Fe Art New York Cy until March 4.
GAY EROTIC STORI,[.1930-1960]
In the 1960s, gay bars New York Cy were illegal. It was a rough, problematic, turbulent world for the bars and their gay ’s when young sger Trevor Copeland arrived New York and stumbled to a relatnship wh pianist and poser Arthur. This effort got them jobs as performers at the Never Get, a gay bar New York’s Greenwich Village.
The third is the story of the police crackdown on illegal gay bars the 1960s, culmatg the famo Stonewall raid of June 28, 1969, that led to rts, the start of the gay rights movement and a new day for the gay muny. Midnight at the Never Get has a lot of drama , pecially for anyone who was around the 1960s and was an eyewns to the police war on the gay muny. Rerd pani the 1960s also sisted that lyrics nnected to gay life be cut out or, more likely, rewrten slightly to turn the gay love stori to heterosexual story of police harassment of gays bars the 1960s is told well.
The NYPD was obliged to raid gay clubs bee they were illegal. Bar owners, tipped off, changed the lorg of lights or clicked lights on and off to warn their gay patrons of a raid. Historilly, most of the gay bars New York the 1960s were owned or n by the Mafia.