By Jeremy Lybarger
In the late ’70s, a San Francisco photographer named Hal Fischer published two books about gay life in the Castro: Gay Semiotics (1977) and 18th near Castro St. x 24 (1978). Unlike the traditional portraits of Anthony Friedkin’s The Gay Essay or the offhand intimacy of Tom Bianchi’s Fire Island Pines, both of which were also shot in the ’70s, Fischer’s work is a playful, postmodern riff on the very idea of portraiture. His photos tell as much as they show.
As its title suggests, Gay Semiotics is a pseudo-academic breakdown of gay signifiers including earrings, leather, poppers, and western wear. Fischer’s captions are equally anthropological and irreverent, as his decoding of handkerchiefs demonstrates: Handkerchief placement indicates whether a man is a top or a bottom, although sometimes they’re “used in the treatment of nasal congestion…and hold no meaning in regard to sexual preferences.”
In our era of Grindr and Manhunt, Fischer’s slice of gay San Francisco has a kind of DIY charm. Forty years ago, an earring or a leather jacket was charged with layers of symbolism and sexual bargaining; today, those things are just relics of bygone subversion, if they mean anything at all. It’s easy to bemoan the representation of gay SF in Looking, but as these photos suggest, the Castro in the ’70s was a hell of a lot more interesting.
“I was exposing something and I was celebrating it by using text and a certain way of photographing in a very deliberately artificial way to disarm it, to not make it threatening. This isn’t Mapplethorpe doing S&M work, this is a 180-degree opposite,” Fischer has said.
Here’s a selection of Fischer’s work for your cruising pleasure.
All photos courtesy of Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles. Hal Fischer, Gay Semiotics, 1977/2014. 24 Carbon pigment prints on 270 gsm Canson PhotoGloss Premium RC paper, handmade case with denim covering. Ed. of 45. 20x16 inches, 50.8x40.64 centimeters.
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