Photographers - Part 43

 Amos Badertscher

Amos Badertscher (1936-2023) was a self-taught photographer who documented the seedy gay underground culture of Baltimore that nobody else was looking at, including hustlers and drug addicts, from the 1960s to around 2005.

Above, one of his earlier photos, called "Danny or Eric - Saturday Night", 1976 or 1977, shows a guy who Badertscher found sitting on the steps "on the far side of the Mt. Vernon meat rack ... looking for any adventure."  The Meat Rack was a gay cruising spot in the Mt. Vernon district of Baltimore where Badertscher lived.

I think the uncertainty in the name (is it Danny or Eric?) and the year (is it 1976 or 1977?) indicates that Badertscher wrote the comments a long time after the photo was taken.

Above: Billy Gilliam, 1998. "I did not find nudity, even youthful male nudity, shocking, abusive, emasculating, pornographic or subversive,” Badertscher said. “To photograph the naked body is for me the ultimate dimension in photographing the person.”

Badertscher's presence in the photo himself, naked, makes it even more personal.   A curator of an exhibit of Badertscher's photos said, "Here was a man who was sort of struggling to come out in the 1960s.  The way that he found a connection in other same-sex relationships was by availing himself of the hustler crowd on the streets of Baltimore where he lived"

A second photo of Billy Gilliam and the photographer, 1998.  Did Badertscher have sex with his models?  Judging by Billy's erection, it certainly seems likely. 

Badertscher broke all the rules for a photographer, including writing copious notes in the margins of his photographs.  In "A Very Short Version of his Story", 1999, above, he records what a disaster Marty's life has been – a father who left, a mother who was a prostitute and drug user, a best friend who was killed in an auto accident, and then Marty himself developed AIDS.

In "What a Piece of Work is Man", 1987, above, the comments are more light-hearted.  Writing about Alexander K, he said, "He drove his parents old Mercedes to get here.  I learned the architectural secrets of the mohawk, a knowledge I would never utilize."

And in this follow-up photo of Alexander called "The Second Time," he observed, "Still the old Mercedes, but not the Mohawk.  And now, with his head shaved, he looked a Hari Krishna calm, beautiful, meditative, monastic."

"Brothers", 1998, for some reason didn't get any comments in the margin.

We end with "No Fear", 1998.  It's labeled "In train tunnel under Wilkins Avenue.  Best friends."  The photo was taken outside on the street, not in his studio, where somehow he persuaded them to drop their pants.  No fear, indeed.

Amos Badertscher died this past July.  He was 86.