The LGBT Studies Shelf

Castro To Christopher
Nicholas Balir, photographer
Jim Farber, introduction
PowerHouse Books
32 Adams Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://powerhousebooks.com
9781648230349, $44.99, HC, 160pp

https://www.amazon.com/Castro-Christopher-Streets-America-19791986/dp/16482= 30342

Synopsis: Between 1979 and 1986 (after Stonewall and before the darkest day=
s of the AIDS epidemic) there was a period of exuberant and burgeoning gay = life in places even then known as "gay paradises". While there were others,=
the best known were San Francisco's Castro District, New York's Christophe=
r Street and Fire Island, and Provincetown, Massachusetts.

The joy (and pathos) of these tragically lost worlds is beautifully and vib= rantly documented in "Castro to Christopher: Gay Streets of America 1979-19= 86" collection of compelling portraits and street scenes photographed by Ni= cholas Blair.

As a teenager lured to San Francisco from New York (via hitchhiking to Buen=
os Aires) Blair lived in a hippie-style arts commune just across town from = the Castro. With a Leica rangefinder camera loaned to him by a childhood fr= iend, Blair began honing his craft as a photographer amidst the explosion o=
f LGBTQ life that was rapidly eclipsing the hippies as the most visible (an=
d photographable) counter-culture movement of the day.

Blair's revealing, evocative, and celebratory photos are a window into the = outburst of pent-up celebration and (occasionally) riotous ebullience of th= eretofore closeted persons who had suddenly felt the door of tolerance open= ing a crack, and who were now leaning in, hard, to live life openly as thei=
r true and genuine selves.

Perhaps most ironic, viewed from today's perspective of intersectionality, =
is how extensively, especially in the San Francisco images, the "hippie" ba= ckground dovetails with, for example, the vibrant flamboyance of many of th= ose in the Pride Parades. How many degrees of separation are there, really,=
between Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters and The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgen= ce?

If the specter of AIDS were not hanging over these photographs, it would be=
as if they were showing us a parallel universe where full equality under l=
aw for LGBTQ people could have come so much sooner. As they stand, these hi= storic images are time capsules of a few places in America, where, for the = very first time, and for a very short while, it was okay to be gay.

Critique: Of special interest to the gay community, "Castro to Christopher:=
Gay Streets of America 1979-1986" is a large format (10.4 x 0.8 x 8.8 inch= es, 1.01 pounds) hardcover volume of black/white photographs by accomplishe=
d photographer Nicholas Blair. With an informative Introduction by Jim Farb= er, "Castro to Christopher: Gay Streets of America 1979-1986" is a fascinat= ing pictorial history of the pre-AIDs gay culture and an unreservedly recom= mended pick for personal, professional, community, and academic library Lif= estyle and Gay Culture photography and history collections.

Editorial Note #1: Nicholas Blair dropped out of high school in 1974 and le=
ft his native New York City to hitchhike through Latin America. Eventually = landing in San Francisco a year later, he helped found The Modern Lovers ar=
ts commune and Ancient Currents Gallery, both dedicated to cultural explora= tion. In 1981, he received his MFA in photography from the San Francisco Ar=
t Institute under the tutelage of renowned photographer and teacher Henry "= Hank" Wessel.

Blair has worked internationally as a photographer and cinematographer for = organizations including CARE and the United Nations. His filmmaking project=
s include the documentary America's Culture of Crash about the rural Americ=
an sport of demolition derby, and Our Holocaust Vacation, a journey through=
Poland with his mother and family, revisiting her Holocaust experiences th= ere.

He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Y= ork Foundation for the Arts, and Jerome Foundation. His photographs are in = the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, International Center of = Photography, Brooklyn Museum, and Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.

Editorial Note #2: Jim Farber is a regular contributor to the New York Time=
s, the Guardian, and numerous other publications. For 25 years he was the c= hief music critic of the New York Daily News and has been writing about cul= ture since the 1970s. He is a three-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation's D= eems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award for music criticism and is an adjunct prof= essor at NYU.

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