Photography
Tomoaki Hata: “The Night Is Still Young”
“The Night Is Still Young” is the title of a photo book by Los Angeles-based, Japanese photographer Tomoaki Hata. The book, which was published in November 2010 and is unfortunately sold out, documents the gay scene of Osaka and especially its drag culture. Here’s a collection of the photographs, I especially like the very intimate and sexy photo series “Ichi and Mi-kun” at the bottom of this post. All pictures courtesy Miyako Yoshinaga art prospects.
Querelle photographed by Roger Fritz @ VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin
Since April 12 Gallery VeneKlasen/Werner is showing production photographs shot during the shooting of Fassbinder’s last film “Querelle” in 1982. The pictures were taken by Roger Fritz, a photographer, producer and performer, who worked on the film set as an actor and production documentarian. They were published in a book called “Querelle – The Film Book”, which was put out in conjunction with the film release, the exhibition is the first time they are publicly shown in a gallery space. The 119 photographs are presented in three long “hanging blocks”, each consisting of three lines of photographs – an egalitarianism that makes it kind of difficult to focus on a single picture and doesn’t really take account of the different qualities of the pictures and their compositions. At the same time the show as a whole is a nice reminder of the beauty of this movie and its wonderful color compositions, so stopping by when you’re around the area of Checkpoint Charlie is definitely worth it. The exhibition runs until February 25 and gives visitors also the possibility to see “Querelle” in a little cinema space, where it is shown daily at 14:00. The film is followed by the rare Fassbinder documentary “The Wizard of Babylon”, which not only includes behind-the-scenes footage from the Querelle set, but also Fassbinder’s final interview (he died in Paris in 1982, a few month before the film was released).
Here are some more of the presented photographs, you find more of them on the gallery’s website. All of them are courtesy VeneKlasen/Werner.
Soul Jazz Records presents: Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York 1989-92
For my generation, Ball Culture is something known and experienced through “Paris is Burning”. The famous price winning documentary film portrays the people involved in the scene in the late 80s, the rules of it, but keeps the distance of the anthropologist’s eye. In addition to the pictures, interviews with protagonists done for the purpose of the book in the last two years gives an often nostalgic look backward. But most interesting is the introduction text by Tim Lawrence, who describes the late 80s Harlem ball scene as part of a 150 years old tradition. “Voguing” is currently on discount, you can order it via Soul Jazz’ website, you also find more information about it there. Here are some more preview pictures (via Dummy, (c) Chantal Regnault)
By starting chronologically where the film ends, the picture book “Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City 1989-1992″, offers a different look on the phenomenon, by being temporally set when balls and voguing gains the attention of the mainstream. Madonna’s single “Vogue” hits the charts in 1990.
The book offers three types of photos: the formal studio portraits by Chantal Regnault in a papier glacé look can be seen today as documents for the relativ fame the protagonists of “Paris is Burning” reached, after they confessed in the film they wanted it so much. Journalistic photos taken at balls and casual-but-posed outdoor snapshots portraits gives a conterpoint, a more spontaneous mise-en-scène of the selves.
Slava Mogutin/ Brian Kenny: “Entropy Parade”
The artist duo (“SUPERM”) has contributed these beautiful collages to the 13th Anniversary Issue of Flaunt magazine. Check out the complete series on Brian Kenny’s website. Via Grateful Grapefruit,
Adrain Chesser: “Gay Campground”
“When I discovered that the Baptist Campground where I had camped as a boy scout was now a gay campground I was in awe. As a boy growing up in the backwoods of Florida I felt that I was the only person in the world afflicted with same sex attraction. I didn’t even have words for my feelings and I was terrified of being found out and cast out. As an adult, I was giddy with the realization that my childhood fantasies and prayers for a safe zone had manifested in the very space that was once a source of torment. The fact that this haven exists in what is still a hostile redneck environment gave me hope and gave me pause. Returning to the campground, I discovered a group of “good ole boys” who, despite the dangers outside the gates, were ready to play and willing to be subjects in my photographs.” “In this body of work I am intentionally revisiting childhood memories, restaging and reclaiming the stories that make up my formative years. Owning the stories in a new way, in the physical realm as a photograph, transforms how I experience these memories. Through the process of illuminating my past I have nullified a constant source of fear and a nagging sense of unease that has impacted my life. These little rituals, made with friends and strangers alike, aim to do more than just reclaim a lost childhood; they strive to show the humanity in all of us, outcasts or not.”
“SOLO – A Group Effort” @ Engels, Berlin
The artist initiative Überflug Berlin is presenting a group exhibition named “SOLO – A Group Effort” at a new art space called Engels, ehich will open tomorrow. It will show “works about one man, by many artists”, which I suppose means that it is focused on portraits. Amongst the featured artists are a whole bunch of interesting queer photographers such as Paul Mpagi Sepuya (see first picture below), Cathal O’Brien (who shoot pictures for the new Kele E.P. “The Hunter”) or Jay Barry Matthews (see second picture below). Check out the flyer above for the for the complete list of artists and the Facebook page of the exhibition for links to their websites.
Exhibition opening is tomorrow, Friday 25.11.11, 7pm at Engels, Herrfurthstr.21 (live music by Stella Veloce and M.E.S.H.). It will run until the December 16.
Paul Mpagi Sepuya: Jay, desktop, October 21 (2011)
Jay Barry Matthews: Are You My Mother, Alex (2011)
Sebastian Gherrë aka GAG-Ball: “I Love You Mommy And Forgive Me But I Have A Daddy Complex”
I recently posted several pictures by a young photographer from Chile called Sebastian Gherrë, who works under the pseudonym GAG-BALL and publishes his work (which mainly consists of pictures of young male and female hookers) on his website www.gag-ball.com. Gherrë’s site works as a virtual gallery with exhibitions, his latest one is entitled “I Love You Mommy and forgive me, but I Have A Daddy Complex” and according to the accompanying text “consists of over 100 pictures showing BDSM-slave practices, young taxi-boys that for a little ammount od money are willing to practice fisting and golden shower, prostitutes with addiction problems that are capable of enjoying double dildos and bondage for getting some easy money”. Here’s my favourite piece of the show namend “The Happy Twins Shake Until Their Mom Bleeds”, for more check out www.gag-ball.com (NSFW).
Katsu Naito: West Side Rendezvous
The following photographs are taken from a book called “West Side Rendezvous” by photographer Katsu Naito, which was launched this July with an exhibition at LN-CC store, London. Naito took beautiful and powerful black and white portraits of trans sexworkers in the early nineties in New York’s legendary Meatpacking District. The book published by London-based independent publisher Wild Life Press contains 45 of these pictures and is available in a limited edition of 500 copies. You can buy it over at the webshop of LN-CC, where you can also watch a small preview video.
Queer Spirit: AA Bronson in Berlin
The book documents a series of performances entitled “Invocation of the Queer Spirits”, for which Bronson and Hobbs brought together groups of men to perform a queer group ritual, which Bronson himself describes as “a hybrid between group therapy, ceremonial magic, a séance, a circle jerk, and a quilting bee”. It also features a series of drawings by artist and partner in crime Elijah Burgher. If you’re not in Berlin this weekend you can order “Queer Spirits” via Creative Time.
For more info about the book and the artist check out this interview on the website Creative Times and this tumblr, which collects pictures of Bronson’s work and photographs of him. There’s also a pretty nice interview with AA Bronson on East Village Boys. This is where I found the beautiful portait on top taken by Ryan Pfluger.
Support Ron Athey’s Book Project “Pleading in the Blood”
Artist Ron Athey celebrates 30 years of performing with a book project in collaboration with artist colleague and editor Dominic Johnson. “Pleading in the Blood: The Art of Ron Athey” will be published next year as the the first book publication dedicated to Athey’s work ever, aiming to “provide a critical overview of his practice”. Two-thirds of the book are already financed, to get together the rest of the money the duo has started a IndieGoGo project. Check out the following video or read the text on the project’s IndieGoGo page for more detailed information about the background and the structure of the book. Via Slava Mogutin.
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