Stop 1657

[poignant 1980s inspired music]

MALE NARRATOR: As you look around the exhibition, you might have noticed that most of the subjects are female, dressed in designer clothing, exuding glamour. This photograph, taken by Herb Ritts in the 1980s, is a stark contrast. A young man shows off his muscular body, returning our gaze with a brooding stare. He is not in designer clothing, but in baggy jeans smeared with grease, and holds two tires in the middle of an auto body shop. Gallerist David Fahey:

DAVID FAHEY: Feminine beauty is something that’s been subject matter for many, many years—centuries for that matter. Herb is coming in the middle of the sexual revolution for the gay movement. [music ends] His message that he's sending is, "Let's admire the male body now. Let's admire only the male body, not with a woman, but solo.” He’s now showing us a new way of seeing. And that, over time, became his style.

MALE NARRATOR: The 80’s proved to be a pivotal decade in LGBT+ history, marked by the emergence of global gay culture and the HIV/AIDS crisis. At a time of increased stigma towards gay men, this image presents a male body that is healthy and fit, an antidote to the bodies wasting away at the hands of the autoimmune disease.

DAVID FAHEY: There was an expression of freedom, of breaking boundaries, breaking rules, stretching out, doing different things, and I think this was reflected to a great deal in photography. [dramatic guitar music evoking period and mood] And Herb was part of that movement. He was one of the first personalities, so to speak, who really came out as being gay. I mean, to talk about being gay and to photograph works that would be considered for the gay audience was unusual and different at the time. Herb once told me that he was trying to get one moment with one frame that eventually may speak for his generation. And that was the heart of what he’s all about.

[music ends]