Al Baltrop | photographs

For gay men, the 70's was the euphoric, pre-AIDS decade of disco, bathhouses, and gay bars. Al Baltrop spent the decade snapping graceful studies of beautiful young men in the deteriorating surroundings of the West Side piers. There were artists, voyeurs, young homeless boys and girls kicked out by their families. Older homeless queens would show them the ropes, tell them where they could bathe, sometimes even sell their own bodies so the young ones wouldn't have to. There was great generosity, and love, and horrifying violence. More...