Photographers - Part 18

 Stanley Stellar

Stanley Stellar, born in 1945, is a New York photographer who chronicled the gay world in New York.  “I loved being the mirror for 40 years of gay men," he says. "It was just beautiful.”

He says, “In 1976, when I got my first Nikon, I knew the world just didn’t need another gay man to be a fashion photographer.  I was proud and happy to be a gay photographer.” He set out to show the beauty of the secret world he had discovered after coming out and exploring the West Village.

Above is a self-portrait, presumably taken in a mirror-like shop window, because the signs are all backwards.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the abandoned Hudson River piers that had been taken over by gay men were part of that that secret world.  Above, a pier in 1980.  Photographers Leonard Fink and Alvin Baltrop, who we have previously seen, also documented the piers.

This is Stellar talking about the piers, from the video Stanley Stellar: Here For This Reason.

Here are some of Stellar's photos of the piers.  This is Danny, 1982.

Robert Pedantic, 1983.  The piers were a place for gay men to meet, to see and be seen.

John Burke, 1984.

Stephen, 1987.

The piers were also a place for quick, anonymous sex.  This is Jerk Off, 1977.

This is called Peter Gets His Dick Sucked, 1981, showing Stellar's friend, photographer Peter Hujar, who we have also seen in a previous post, getting serviced in the background.  By the way, the graffiti that looks like a Keith Haring drawing is a Keith Haring drawing – perhaps Haring's way of saying "I was here."

Rick Daccard, 1981, next to another piece of graffiti by Keith Haring.

Stellar didn't just photograph the piers.  He photographed gay life on the city streets and indoors.  This is called 12 West Party, 1982.  The guy on the balcony seems to be enjoying himself with an audience.

Then the AIDS epidemic struck.  Here's a clip from Stanley Stellar: Here For This Reason talking about the epidemic and how it changed his photography and his reason for being.

As the clip explains, Stellar's photographic mission changed to taking portraits of gay men while they were still alive, because nobody knew if they were going to die.  He continued taking portraits after the epidemic subsided.  This is Gary, 1992.

Gonzalo, 2006.

Kennedy, 2011.

But Stellar didn't stop documenting other parts of gay life.  In this clip from Stanley Stellar: Here For This Reason, he talks about how the Gay Pride parade evolved from a local thing on Christopher Street to a major celebration of gay life, and how the world is different for young gay men today than it was for him.

You can see the entire video Stanley Stellar: Here For This Reason at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/photographer-stanley-stellar-on-40-years-of-gay-life-in-new-york-city_n_5d0940f9e4b077af7c55f963.