Alvin Baltrop

Alvin Baltrop (1948 – February 1, 2004) was a gay African-American photographer who earned fame through his photographs of the Hudson River piers during the 1970s and 1980s.

Early life

Baltrop was born in 1948[1] in the Bronx. He discovered his love of photography in junior high school.[2] Baltrop received no formal art education; older photographers from the neighborhood taught him different techniques and how to develop photos himself.

Career

Baltrop enlisted in the Navy as a medic during the Vietnam War and continued taking photos, mainly of his friends in sexually provocative poses. He built his own developing lab in the sick bay, using medic trays for developing trays.[2] After his time in the Navy, Baltrop worked odd jobs as a street vendor, a jewelry designer, a printer, and a cab driver. Because he wanted to spend more time taking photos at the Hudson River piers, he quit his job as a cab driver to become a self-employed mover. He would park his van at the piers for days at a time, living out of his van to take pictures.

From 1975 through 1986, Baltrop took photographs of the West Side piers, where he was a well-known member of the community.[2] Baltrop knew every person he photographed, and people often volunteered to be photographed. Younger boys and men at the piers often confided in him about their sexual orientation, their relationships with their families, their housing status, and their work.

Baltrop captured the gay cruising spots and hookup culture that existed in New York City before the AIDS epidemic.[3] Baltrop's photographs not only captured human personalities, but also the aesthetics of the dilapidated piers. His life work is a snapshot of gay, African-American, and New York City history.

Baltrop struggled to make his way in the art world, facing racism from the white gay art world. Gay curators often rejected his work, accused him of stealing it, or stole his work themselves.[2] He had few exhibits in his lifetime; his work gained international fame only after his death.

In 2008, University of Rochester art professor Douglas Crimp wrote an article about Alvin Baltrop for ARTFORUM Magazine that regenerated interest in Baltrop's work.[4]

In 2015, the Spanish publisher TF Editores published Alvin Baltrop: The Piers edited by James Reid, Tom Watt, and Glenn O'Brien.

Personal life

According to one journalist, Baltrop came out as gay at fourteen years old.[5] Baltrop had long term relationships with men and women, but preferred identifying as gay.[2]

Baltrop was diagnosed with cancer in the 1990s. Impoverished and without health insurance, curators and filmmakers attempted to exploit him for their own financial gain. He died on February 1, 2004.[1][2]

Exhibits

References

  1. 1 2 Cotter, Holland (15 October 2015). "At ‘Greater New York,’ Rising Art Stars Meet the Old School". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Atoe, Osa (24 March 2009). "Alvin Baltrop". Colorlines. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  3. ↑ Swanson, Carl (18 November 2015). "Manhattan's West Side Piers, When They Were Naked and Gay". New York. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  4. ↑ Crimp, Douglas. "Douglas Crimp on Alvin Baltrop". MutualArt. Retrieved 29 January 2017.
  5. ↑ Massara, Kathleen. "Life and Death on the Piers with Alvin Baltrop". L Magazine. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.