Joe Reeves, 37 years old; San Fernando, California; $40 (c. 1990).
Not all the photos in Philip-Lorca diCorcia’s Hustlers series are as immediately striking as this example, nor do they offer the same narrative implications. Most are direct portrait shots, all of which were taken in Los Angeles in the early 1990s when DiCorcia says the US government “officially condemned homosexuality”. AIDS was still an untreatable illness at this time which would have made street hustling even more of a hazard than usual. DiCorcia’s work is currently receiving its first UK retrospective at the Hepworth Wakefield, an exhibition which includes the Hustlers series. More of these photos may be seen at TIME. The dollar amount in the title refers to the amount each subject was paid for their work.
Update: Hans alerts me to Hustlers (2013), a book which collects diCorcia’s photo series.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• City of Night by John Rechy
• William E. Jones on Fred Halsted
• A hustle here, a hustle there…
• California boys by Mel Roberts