SAN FRANCISCO — The Center for Sex and Culture will host an evening of history and gay fine-art sexual photography from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Mark I Chester Studio in San Francisco. The evening is free and open to adults of all genders, orientations and sexual styles.Chester often is described as a “radical gay sex photographer” because his work is not easy to categorize. That Chester’s art crosses the normally exclusive boundaries of fine-art portraiture, social documentary and sexually explicit material makes some of it downright difficult to observe. His radical sex portraits document a sexual history and reflect the tumultuous changes that have occurred in the world — and San Francisco, in particular — over the past 30 years. According to Chester, lives that are not documented disappear into the ether over time as if they never existed.
The artist will present a slide show and historical overview of his explorations in sexual portraiture during the event. The photographs document his life in the San Francisco gay underground from the late 1970s to the present. Included in the presentation will be a special focus on two bodies of work from the late 1990s, “the dream of my youth is dead but I can’t stop dreaming” and “Bad Boys on Parade—portraits on the verge of the new millennium.” Chester is compiling the two bodies of work into a book called Marked Men. Twenty-eight framed, vintage black-and-white silver prints from Marked Men will be on display.
Chester self-published his first book, Diary of a Thought Criminal, in 1996. He sees Marked Men as the next chapter in the diary, containing images from 1997-1999 that continue to delve into the sexual psyche of gay men. The Center for Sex and Culture has declared itself a patron of the book-in-progress and will raise funds to assist in its publication.
“I am personally enormously moved by Mark’s work,” said Dr. Carol Queen, founding director of the center. “It is hot, beautifully photographed, and truly sexologically significant. Mark documents a series of historical moments, a community of sexual affiliation, and sexual identity and connection, and succeeds in showing us the diversity within all of this. His work is unique and deeply meaningful. The Center for Sex and Culture is committed to seeing that this important part of San Francisco history is documented and saved for all time.”
The Mark I Chester Studio is located at 1229 Folsom St. in San Francisco. Reservations are suggested, as space is limited. Call (415) 621-6294 for details.
For more information about Chester and his work, visit MarkIChester.com.
