Posts from the “AnOther Man” Category

Vince Aletti: The Disco Files

Posted on October 22, 2018

Drag queens mugging. © Peter Hujar

In 1973, Vince Aletti was living in a two-room apartment in New York’s East Village that cost just $125 a month – a fee he could afford as a freelance music journalist for magazines like Rolling Stone and Crawdaddy. Aletti’s beat was covering black pop music like R&B, Motown, and Philly International. Then one night, a friend took him to The Loft, the private party hosted by DJ David Mancuso, where he got his first taste of disco – before the genre even had a name.

Aletti became the first person to write about the emerging disco scene, chronicling its rise from the underground to the top of the charts, introducing Black and Latinx gay culture to the world. In his weekly column for Record World magazine, Aletti showcased the latest breaking records, top ten playlists from DJs like Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and Nicky Siano, scoops and reviews.

Aletti’s impressive archive is available to the public once more in The Disco Files 1973–78: New York’s Underground, Week by Week (D.A.P.). Here, Aletti shares some memories of those disco nights so long ago.

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The men’s room at G.G. Barnums. © Toby Old

Refreshments at New York. © Toby Old

Categories: 1970s, AnOther Man, Art, Music

Contact Warhol: Photography Without End

Posted on October 9, 2018

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Detail from Contact Sheet [Andy Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Halston, Diane de Beauvau, Bethann Hardison in the back of a limousine], 1976. Gelatin silver print. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2014.43.3622. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Detail from Contact Sheet [Photo shoot with Andy Warhol with shadow], 1986. Gelatin silver print. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2014.43.2893. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

In 1976, Andy Warhol began using a Minox 35EL camera to document his world – much in the same way he would call Pat Hackett every morning to report and record the previous day’s activities. Taking his camera wherever he went, Warhol shot over 3,600 rolls of film for an impressive total of 130,000 exposures over the following years, creating a meticulous record of New York City during its most decadent era. Through these images, we encounter the luminaries of the day including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Halston, Elizabeth Taylor, and Diane Von Furstenberg, with whom he seamlessly blended work and play.

In 2014, the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University was chosen as the permanent home for the Andy Warhol Photography Archive, selections from which are currently on view in the new exhibition Contact Warhol: Photography Without End and its accompanying catalogue from The MIT Press. Here, project archivist Amy DiPasquale takes us on a deep dive inside the days and nights of Andy Warhol during the last 11 years of his life.

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Andy Warhol (U.S.A., 1928–1987), Detail from Contact Sheet [Jean-Michel Basquiat photo shoot for Polaroid portrait; Andy Warhol, Bruno Bischofberger], 1982. Gelatin silver print. Gift of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., 2014.43.1547. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Manhattan, Photography

John Waters: Indecent Exposure

Posted on October 5, 2018

Beverly Hills John, 2012. Rubell Family Collection, Miami. © John Waters, Courtesy Marianne Boesky Gallery

John Waters is a master of paradox, bridging the divide between seeming opposition with love, wit, and nerve. At 72, the Pope of Trash continues to storm the world with Indecent Exposure, his first art retrospective opening October 7 at the Baltimore Museum of Art in America and, on this side of the pond, with This Filthy World, his one-man show headlining Homotopia at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on November 10.

Indecent Exposure features more than 160 photographs, sculptures, soundworks, and video made since the 1990s around themes including pop culture, the movie business, childhood and identity, self-portraits, sex and transgression, and contemporary art. Here, sacred cows are led to the slaughter, tenderised, and barbecued by a loving heart that embraces the absurd in every element of the work.

With 16 films and eight books under his belt, Waters brings his love for writing and editing to the visual realm and discovered that the “perfect moments” are often accidental and failed. “What works best in the art world is sometimes what works the opposite of perfect in the movie world,” Waters reveals. “In the movie world it has to be in focus, you have to hit your mark, it has to be lit well, which is what I want. In the art world, I make mistakes as I learn. The low tech, catch-as-you-can photography that I do is failed photographing in the beginning of fine art photography.”

Waters brings this same spirit to the spoken word, a practice that he began in the late 1960s when he and Divine first began showing films at colleges. Over the years, Waters has transformed what began as a vaudeville skit into a perfectly honed monologue, tailored to the time and place of his performance – while maintaining his fascination with true crime, fashion gone wild, art world extremism, and exploitation films in a joyous celebration of trashy goodness. Here, Another Man directs 50 questions to this countercultural icon; the Pope of Trash and the Baron of Bad Taste.

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John Waters, Divine in Ecstasy,1992. Collection of Amy and Zachary Lehman. © John Waters, Courtesy Marianne Boesky Gallery

Categories: 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Photography

John Edmonds: Higher

Posted on September 18, 2018

John Edmonds photographer interview Higher book du-rag 2018
© John Edmonds, courtesy of Capricious

Hometown: Growing up in Washington DC, John Edmonds came of age visiting the many free museums in the city. It created the perfect counterpoint to his upbringing in the Baptist Church, as he was able to recognise various figures from Bible stories. Edmonds adopted elements of painting into Immaculate (2011), the earliest series that appears in his first book, Higher (out on September 20 via Capricious).

Now lives: After receiving an MFA in Photography from Yale University School of Art in 2016, Edmonds moved to Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The black community immediately became a source of inspiration to the young artist. “Crown Heights is such a spirited area. It is really exciting and invigorating for me. The ‘Du-Rag’ series of photographs came out of my moving here and walking down the streets and seeing men and women in them,” Edmonds says. “I started photographing these people anonymously and printed them on a Japanese silk that replicates the materiality of it. When I started making those photographs, I felt as though I had arrived.”

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John Edmonds photographer interview Higher book du-rag 2018
© John Edmonds, courtesy of Capricious

Categories: AnOther Man, Art, Books, Brooklyn, Photography

Richard Bernstein: Starmaker

Posted on September 3, 2018

Cher. Courtesy of The Richard Bernstein Estate Archives

When Interview announced that it would cease publication earlier this spring, a flurry of flawless faces that once graced the magazine covers suddenly began to reemerge – each portrait more entrancing than the one that came before. Grace Jones, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, the list goes on. They were all created by the same artist, who rendered them as unforgettable icons of our time – the very same artist who wrote he word “Interview” that appeared over their heads: Richard Bernstein.

Born in the Bronx but raised on Long Island, Bernstein returned to the city to study art at the Pratt Institute in 1958. He adopted a cultured New England accent with a splash of effete-ery, and headed downtown to cavort with the new generation of gay artists like Billy Name, Gerard Malanga, and Danny Williams making their name in Andy Warhol’s Factory scene.

Bernstein travelled to London when the Swinging 60s was at its height, then returned to New York in 1968 and joined the scene as it was taking shape at Max’s Kansas City and the Chelsea Hotel. Bernstein got his start in magazines when he began working with Peter Hujar on Newspaper and Picture Newspaper, a short-lived document of the city’s queer scene. The first issue gave us a taste of things to come: Bernstein’s iconic cover and centerfold of Candy Darling that left nothing to the imagination.

By 1972, Bernstein began what would become a two-decade odyssey as the cover artist for Andy Warhol’s Interview. He joined the magazine just as it was taking shape, transforming from an underground movie magazine to a luscious glossy that brought Hollywood glamour back to life in an effervescent celebration of downtown art, culture, and style. Bernstein’s covers perfectly defined the times, becoming eye-catching emblems of the era.

In celebration of his work, Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha have put together Richard Bernstein Starmaker: Andy Warhol’s Cover Artist (Rizzoli), a sumptuous history of the artist’s life and legacy. In conjunction with the launch of the book, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, will host Richard Bernstein: Fame (September 7-October 27, 2018). Here, the authors take us on a whirlwind tour through a singular career.

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Joan Rivers. Courtesy of The Richard Bernstein Estate Archives

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Exhibitions, Painting

Marcia Resnick: Bad Boys

Posted on August 28, 2018

Fab 5 Freddy, copyright Marcia Resnick

While living in a loft in Tribeca during the 1970s, American photographer Marcia Resnick began creating a series of portraits of the enfants terribles living in her neighbourhood, capturing an era of anti-heroes whose influence continues to be felt across the worlds of art, music, film, and literature today.

Whether photographing artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, writers such as William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, musicians like Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders, and Mick Jagger, or the baron of bad taste himself John Waters, Resnick had an eye – as the title of her new book suggests – for bad boys; punks, poets and provocateurs.

Every night, Resnick would infiltrate New York’s downtown art scene, hitting up CBGB, Max’s Kansas City, and the Mudd Club to catch the latest happenings. Here, she discovered subjects that she could photograph there and then, and also at her studio. Here, Resnick reflects on her Bad Boys photo series, which can be found in full in Punks, Poets & Provocateurs New York City Bad Boys, 1977–1982 (Insight Editions).

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Klaus Nomi, copyright Marcia Resnick

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Manhattan, Photography

Rough Trade: Art and Sex Work in the Late 20th Century

Posted on August 16, 2018

Untitled (Hustler’s Handshake) from the portfolio Teenage Lust, c. 1981, Vintage gelatin silver print, Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City© Larry Clark

In the years between the sexual revolution, Stonewall, and the advent of AIDS, the repressive respectability politics of the 1950s fell away, allowing a generation of men and women to come of age expressing their sexuality with more freedom than ever before. As social attitudes relaxed, many artists explored massage parlours, go-go bars, pornographic theaters, and strip clubs – the spaces where sex work flourished.

Greg Ellis of Ward 5B, has curated Rough Trade: Art and Sex Work in the Late 20th Century, a new group exhibition currently on view at ClampArt, New York, until September 22, 2018. Organised to coincide with David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night, this exhibition takes a look at the relationship between artists and sex workers.

Some, like Wojnarowicz and Mark Morrisroe, drew upon their traumatic early histories as hustlers, while others like Larry Clark and Tomata du Plenty documented their friends, lovers, and acquaintances involved in the sex industry. Rough Trade also includes works by John Barrington, Kenny Burgess, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Fred Halsted, John Sex, Jane Sherry, Pedro Slim, Samuel Steward, and Tommy Vallette, as well as related ephemera. Speaking to Another Man, Ellis shares his insights on this fascinating side of art history.

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Tattooed Man, 1957, Ink and watercolor on artist board, Courtesy of ClampArt, New York City © Sam Steward [Phil Sparrow]

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art

Bruce W. Talamon: Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972–1982

Posted on August 7, 2018

As staff photographer at SOUL Newspaper during the 1970s, Los Angeles native Bruce W. Talamon knew the score: “always respect the artist and don’t fuck up the vibe. Always be on top of your game, and take any chance you can”. These lessons served him well documenting artists such as the Jackson Five, Parliament-Funkadelic, Donna Summer, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye; the legendary soul, funk, and R&B acts of the 1970s that turned pop music into an unforgettable trip on the Soul Train.

Every Saturday morning, kids and teens across the United States tuned into Don Cornelius’ dance extravaganza. In the decade before video killed the radio star, the sound of Black America hit the high bar as artists like Al Green, Bootsy Collins, and Rick James burned up the stage. After they turned off the TV they hungered for more; more photos and stories about their heroes. So, they read SOUL.

Talamon jumped on the scene, quite literally, when he walked on stage at Wattstax to photograph Isaac Hayes in 1972 – unaccredited. The young photographer had picked up a camera the year before, and decided to forgo his studies as a law student for something entirely different – something no one in the mainstream media was covering in any depth. It is fortunate that he did; as without Talamon, there would be no photograph of Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire walking with a white umbrella towards the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Now, in his new book published by Taschen and titled Bruce W. Talamon. Soul. R&B. Funk. Photographs 1972–1982, the artist takes us back to this pivotal era in history, when glamour, grandeur, and grooves reigned supreme.

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Categories: 1970s, 1980s, AnOther Man, Art, Books, Music, Photography

Meryl Meisler: Fire Island 1977 – 1978

Posted on July 17, 2018

In July 1978, Donna Summer released Last Dance, the final word on the dancefloor – the last record spun at the club before the lights come on. American photographer Meryl Meisler could not have known then just how apt that track would be when it released during her last summer at The Survivor, a cottage on Fire Island.

Just one year earlier, Meisler had made her entrée to the Fire Island social scene, after meeting a hairstylist named Barnett through a friend of a friend she knew from her nights at Studio 54. Barnett had just gotten out of a long-term relationship and took a shine to Meisler. He extended an open invitation to his home, and for two seasons Meisler made her way to heart of Cherry Grove, accompanied by her childhood friend Judi Jupiter.

During those first years in between the Summer of Love and the advent of AIDS, New York was a carefree candyland, equal parts innocence and decadence. Camera in hand, Meisler captured a forgotten slice of New York LGBTQ history in these photographs, some of which appear in her books A Tale of Two Cities: Disco Era Bushwick and Purgatory & Paradise: SASSY ‘70s Suburbia & The City (Bizarre Publishing). Meisler looks back at this Edenic idyll 40 years on.

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Categories: 1970s, AnOther Man, Art, Photography

David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night

Posted on July 10, 2018

Artwork: David Wojnarowicz with Tom Warren, Self-Portrait of David Wojnarowicz. Collection of Brooke Garber Neidich and Daniel Neidich, Photography Ron Amstutz

At the pinnacle of his career, American artist David Wojnarowicz (1954-1992) was the preeminent symbol the 1980s East Village art scene. Like his contemporaries Kathy Acker, Jenny Holzer, and Barbara Kruger, Wojnarowicz used art as a form of resistance and to unravel the mythical image of America.

Wojnarowicz came of age in New York City, where he was the victim of shockingly brutal childhood abuse. Pushed to the margins, he became a street hustler in his teens in order to survive. By the late 1970s, as a new avant-garde street culture came into vogue, propelled by the DIY ethos of punk, hip hop, No Wave, and graffiti, Wojnarowicz began to create art as a vehicle for political activism, rebellion, and rage against the institutions that oppressed and exploited the vulnerable.

Over a period of about 15 years, Wojnarowicz produced a body of work that was innovative as it was excoriating, working across a range of media – including photography, painting, collage, music, film, sculpture, writing, and performance – using art as a tool of exploration and a weapon to fight the power structure. An AIDS activist until his dying day, Wojnarowicz posed some challenging questions about American culture and history, tearing apart the respectability politics of polite society in search of the truth.

His death on July 22, 1992, which was caused by AIDS-related illness, cut short the life of one most incendiary artists of our time – he was just 37. Now, in celebration of his legacy, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, presents David Wojnarowicz: History Keeps Me Awake at Night (July 13 – September 30, 2018), which will be accompanied by a catalogue of the same name published by Yale University Press. Here, we spotlight everything you need to know about David Wojnarowicz.

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David Wojnarowicz, History Keeps Me Awake at Night (For Rilo Chmielorz), 1986

Categories: 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, AnOther Man, Art, Exhibitions

Marc H. Miller and Bettie Ringma: Paparazzi Self-Portraits

Posted on July 3, 2018

In the mid-70s, the term “paparazzi” was beginning to seep into the cultural consciousness through a dazzling combination of art and life. While Federico Fellini’s 1961 film La Dolce Vita introduced the word “paparazzi” (Italian for “mosquito”), it was not until American photographer Ron Galella showed the world just what a paparazzo was willing to do to get the shot that it truly become part of everyday parlance; in 1973, Marlon Brando broke his jaw with a single punch; one year later Jackie Onassis sued him, managing to secure an order of protection that did not stop Galella from getting his most famous image.

Intrigued by this new phenomenon coming into its own, American artist Marc H. Miller and Dutch artist Bettie Ringma started making Paparazzi Self-Portraits in 1975. Here, they posed for snapshots alongside personal heroes including Angela Davis, Susan Sontag, William S. Burroughs, and Patti Smith, as well as bands from the emerging punk scene at CBGB including Talking Heads, the Dead Boys, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

The project reached new heights in 1978 when Curt Hoppe, their downstairs neighbor, offered to create a large format photorealistic painting of Ringma with the Ramones, which was unveiled in Punk Art, the first exhibition to showcase the visual artists of the scene. Miller looks back at the sweet spot where pop culture and conceptual art met, and pays tribute to Ringma, who died on March 8 of this year.

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Categories: 1970s, AnOther Man, Art, Manhattan, Photography