Issue Number 1012 | A Bar With a View | Advocate.com A Bar With a View  |  | Advocate.com

Advocate.com health Channel
||  Books  ||
 
A Bar With a View
Slava Mogutin’s new book of photography captures the exotic nightlife of New York City go-go boys.
From The Advocate  August 12, 2008
A Bar With a View

Raunchy, spontaneous, and chaotic, Slava Mogutin’s new photo collection documenting New York City’s underground club scene is not your father’s book of gay nudes. Dusted with feathers, streaked with glistening paint, trussed up in garbage-bag thongs, and peeling away gauzy underwear, these boys are caught partying in real life, in real time. Mogutin, who emigrated to New York in 1995 and claims to be the first Russian granted asylum by the U.S. due to homophobic persecution, has an aesthetic reminiscent of Arthur Tress’s gritty work set on New York’s West Side piers in the pregentrification ’70s, but his shots are rarely studied or posed. Instead, he’s established a remarkably high level of trust with his subjects on their own turf, allowing the viewer to enter scenes that are lewd, genuinely erotic, and full of tease, from a very short distance. In many dramatically cropped shots, shoulders and tats, or skinny calves and dirty sneakers, are as much the focus as cinched balls, smooth bellies, and hairy butts, building drama as they lead up to full-frontal shots deeper into the book. The result brings the raw realism of the ’zine Straight to Hell to Manhattan’s club scene, further enhancing Mogutin’s reputation as an enfant terrible of the international art world.  

NYC Go-Go by Slava Mogutin, with an introductory essay by Bruce Benderson (Powerhouse, $35, 184 pages)

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Be the first to comment on this story.

Back to top

Submit a comment for this story:

*Type your comment here (Required, 1000 characters max.):

*Name (Required): 

*Hometown (Required): 

*E-mail address: (Required, but will not be displayed)

Is this comment for publication? 
Yes   No

Daytime phone number: (Required for print publication only and will not be displayed)

Please enter the words you see in the box, in order and separated by a space. Doing so helps prevent automated programs from abusing this service.

  

If you would like to submit a comment for posting, please fill out the form above. 

All comments submitted via this form are subject to posting or publication. (To send a private letter to an Advocate editor or writer, please use the e-mail button at the top of the page, or use snail mail.) If you would like your comment considered for publication in The Advocate magazine, please include your full name, your city of residence, and a phone number where you can be reached during business hours so that we can confirm your identity. Your e-mail address and telephone number are strictly confidential and will not be shared or used for any purpose other than to contact you about your comment.

Comments that do not concern specific articles in The Advocate or on Advocate.com will not be posted or published. See the Contact page for sending comments for reasons other than responding to Advocate editorial and news stories.

Please note that comments sent by fax or snail mail are unlikely to be posted, although they will be considered for publication along with all letters received via e-mail or via this Web page. Comments that chiefly concern Advocate.com content will be considered for posting only on the Web site. The Advocate reserves the right to edit submitted comments for grammar, spelling, obscenities, or libel; we will, however, do our best to preserve the original comment's style and intent. Comments considered for publication in The Advocate magazine may also be edited for length.