Such limitations prevented most “amateur phot5ographers” from accurately reflecting reality unless s/he made an extraordinary effect to do so. In other words, photography was used sparingly. And once exposed, you can’t erase and re-use a frame. Do you seriously think these mostly beefcake and celebratory photos reflect gay life and activism in the 80s/90’s?įInally, these pre-date digital photography, Unlike today’s flash memory, a roll of 35mm film generally held no more than 24 photos. Gays were still kicked out of the military, and gay marriage was not yet on any activists’ roster. The SCOTUS ruled against gays in Bowers v Hardwicke. Third, where do you see activism in these photos? So how exactly can you infer anything about gay activism throughout the decades from a few irrelevant photos of the 80’s and 90’s? Looking at these photos, you’d think being gay was carefree - when in fact, AIDS was still decimating the community.
Are you saying that you can infer things about the 1960’s civil rights movement from my photos of diners? I recently took some dining photos in Harlem, NY. He was merely an “amateur photographer.” As such, why would you even assume that you can extrapolate anything about gay history from the images? Second, the photographer never pretended to be a journalist or chronicler of gay history. Can you rule out that he was simply interested in “mostly gay white men? In no way can you conclude that these were an objective reflection of the time. In other words, these were simply scenes that piqued the photographer’s interest.
Ummmm Yeah: Er, how are these photos proof of anything?įirst of all, photographs are taken at the whim of the photographer. The young black guy on the left in picture 5 is the famous writer Larry Duplechan, author of Eight Days a Week, Got Til It’s Gone and Blackbird, which Patrik-Ian Polk of Punks and Noah.