Bob Mizer Foundation Collaboration, Los Angeles, USA 2021
NOW FEATURED in the Bob Mizer Foundation Publication, LosAngeles, USA:
“I’ve never met a person I couldn’t call a beauty.” – Andy Warhol
Digital Photographs Made From Original Polaroids Taken in 1990’s in New York & Los Angeles. Printed in 2021. Measure 11 x 14 inches each with Image Centred on Paper. Epson 100% Cotton Fiber. Bright White Base & Matte Finish. Open Edition. Signed in Graphite Pencil on Lower Right. USD$350 each.
Photographer ‘J.P.’ wishes to remain anonymous.
Polaroid SX-70, 600 and i-Type film measures exactly 3.108 × 3.024 inches (photo area) and 4.233 x 3.483 inches (total area). That’s 7.894 x 7.6801 cm (photo area) and 10.752 x 8.847 cm (total area).
Original Polaroids: Pricing is USD$975 & USD$1475 (prices based on model’s history)
Artist Statement: Anonymous
“I was photographing male nudes for gay erotic magazines including Advocate Men, Mandate, Torso, & Playgirl in the 1990s. I was always interviewing potential models. I placed ads in the classified section of the local gay weeklies, like HX, NEXT (NYC), and Frontiers (LA). There were many more interviews than magazine-approved photography sets. Even when I knew the model wasn’t a good candidate for the job, I shot them. I never had the heart to reject anyone; I left that up to the editors. Many Polaroids have my handwritten details of the candidate’s name, age, height, weight, and phone number. The backgrounds are of the various apartments I lived in NYC and LA.
Besides the obvious first impression of these guys hard-on, are a selection of men of every size and shape, and from every race and culture you’d find in NYC and LA in the 90s represented. It’s a capsule of an era. I see vulnerability in many of these men, while others present themselves as invincible. You can’t look at them without wondering what the rest of their story was — where their lives took them. And wonder, too: how many are no longer with us?”
– J.P., June 2021
Further Research of Models:
* Blue Blake, Los Angeles 1992
https://pinkinourlives.com/
https://avn.com/gay/porn-stars/blue-blake-288226.html
*Daryl Brock, New York City 1996
https://www.iafd.com/person.rme/perfid=darylbrock/gender=m/daryl-brock.htm
* Marco Reeves, New York City 1995
https://www.iafd.com/person.rme/perfid=marceloreeves/gender=m/marcelo-reeves.htm
* Will Clark, New York City 1995
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Clark_(actor)
* Robert Blanchon, New York City 1997
https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/29934/david-wojnarowicz-robert-blanchon/
https://visualaids.org/projects/robert-blanchon-monograph
https://hyperallergic.com/472993/revisiting-the-provocative-aids-art-of-robert-blanchon/
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/10/25/arts/robert-blanchon-34-conceptual-artist.htmlhttp://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/blanchon/bioghist.html
https://newsgrist.typepad.com/visualaids/2010/02/via-the-new-york-timesrobert-blanchontraceybarry-gallery-bobst-librarynew-york-university-70-washington-square-southgreenw.html
https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/from-the-archives-art-aids-the-stuff-life-is-made-of-63167/
https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collection/artwork/robert-blanchon
https://www.the-artists.org/robert-blanchon/
https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/29934/david-wojnarowicz-robert-blanchon/
https://www.sashaarchibald.com/You-Make-Me-Feel-Mighty-Real
Robert Blanchon (1965–99) was an American artist born in Foxboro, Massachusetts. His conceptual artworks often dealt with histories of American Conceptual Art, the politics of AIDS, and representations of queer sexuality. Blanchon attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1984 to 1989, earning both a BFA and a MFA. While in Chicago, Blanchon was an active participant in the non-profit art scene, curating exhibitions at N.A.M.E. gallery, contributing to Tony Tasset, et al.’s artist project Anonymous Museum, and designing a poster for the City of Chicago’s billboard campaign Art Against AIDS: On the Road.
From 1989 to 1994, Blanchon lived in New York City and worked in the communications department of the New Museum of Contemporary Art while producing his photographic, sculptural, performance, and video artworks. He had a studio on Canal Street where he completed many of his early photographic series, including the stains, tattoos, and greeting cards series. Also during this period, Blanchon created two of his best known and most exhibited artworks, Untitled (self-portrait) (1991), a series of 14 self-portraits commissioned by street artists, and Protection(1992), a letter from the artist to his mother telling her he was HIV-positive, juxtaposed with her 12-page response.
Blanchon had solo exhibitions in New York City at Artists Space in 1994 and at White Columns in 1995. In 1995, he moved to California to take a position as an artist-in-residence at the University of California, Irvine. While in California, he produced the video let’s just kiss + say goodbye (1995), which was exhibited in national and international film festivals, and he had two solo shows, at the Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies in 1996 and at Marc Foxx Gallery in the following year.
In the spring of 1998, Blanchon moved back to Chicago to become an artist-in-residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the fall of the same year, he took another artist-in-residence position at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. By the end of the summer Blanchon was hospitalized due to complications related to AIDS, and on October 3, 1999, he died at the of age 33.
Developed in close collaboration with the NYU Fales Library, New York, this unique exhibition concentrates on the photography, videos, and films produced by the artists during their practice.