Photographers - Part 57

Sasha Kargaltsev

Alexander 'Sasha' Kargaltsev is an award-winning filmmaker and photographer.  Above, a self-portrait (click to see a larger version).  Born in Moscow, he got a scholarship to attend the New York Film Academy in 2010, and he applied for and was granted asylum in the U.S. because of Russian persecution of gays.

His first U.S. photo exhibition, Asylum, documented fellow Russian gay men who had fled to the U.S. to escape persecution.  Above, one of them poses in front of the globe from the 1964 New York World's Fair. 

Another, Sergey, in front of the statue of Alice in Wonderland in Central Park.

America did seem like Wonderland to these guys compared to what it was like in Russia.  In an interview, Sasha Kargaltsev said, "People are not coming out, and are not openly gay—actually it is forbidden. You cannot hold hands, you cannot carry the rainbow flag—it is considered propaganda now."

Above, Max, another gay Russian refugee.

In another interview, Sasha said, "As an openly gay man, life became unbearable for me growing up as a student in Moscow.  I was attacked many times in the street, sometimes in planned ambushes on the way to gay meetings, at other times by chance and gratuitously; bloody noses and bleeding heads. But often the police just stood by, after all, coming to the rescue of a 'faggot' being given a hard time was not important enough to ruffle your uniform. And all of this was before the new laws, which frankly equate homosexuality with paedophilia and ban the propagation of 'non-traditional sexual practices'.”

Stas and Kelvin, doing what would get them arrested in Russia.

This guy is on a rooftop with an apparatus for making huge bubbles.

On a New York fire escape.

A guy with a leaf blower, daringly photographed in a New York park.

Not everyone that Kargaltsev photographed was escaping Russian persecution.  In this photo called Loft in the Red Zone, I'm guessing that the white guy was Russian, but the black guy was a New York local.

And this is definitely not a Russian refugee.  He is Kevyn Mines, who formerly starred in gay porn films.

We'll end with a few more self-portraits of Sasha Kargaltsev.  This is Sasha in a New York park.

Sasha with friend Brock at the beach.

And finally, an amazingly candid self-portrait.  Spasibo, Sasha!