CONTACTStaffCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2024 Pride Publishing Inc.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Stellar was educated at Parsons School of Design where he focused on graphic design and photography. His professional career has produced innumerable book designs, editorial design, and art direction for magazines and publishing houses, as well as many gallery shows of his art photography in the U.S. and in Europe. His photography has been presented and discussed in over a dozen anthologies and has been on the covers of 26 international magazines. One of the seminal photographers of the early period of gay liberation, many of his images from that time have become icons of that period. He lives and works in New York City.
Why are you a photographer?
I'm a photographer because I know how to see, and feel, and communicate, and I feel compelled to do so. I'm addicted to seeing. It's what I have done for most of my life. Being a photographer is what I desire, it's what I know.
I started taking photographs at around eleven or twelve years old. As a child, seeing the photographic image was magic for me.
When I was young, I lived the life of a lonely, isolated queer boy. I was invisible, and alone in high school. All I could do was look out at a middle class Brooklyn world that was happening, but wasn't mine. I had no friends. Images became friends I could play with and a place to go for refuge. When I went to Parsons School of Design in Manhattan, everything changed. Parsons trained me to become a very sophisticated visual dude.
I came out in the sixties and found myself for the first time in my life in intimate visual situations -- in rooms with men with and without our clothes on -- being able to freely and honestly look at each other as men and experience each other physically. But at that time there was almost no meaningful recorded imagery of us, or the physical culture and style of who men are, here in my New York City world. I was moved to record it for myself, and for all of us.
When I was an editorial art director in the '70s, I used to think I wanted to design other people's photographs graphically. Possess them in that way. Then in 1976 it became clear to me that I wanted to take my own images of what I had never freely seen, of who and what I was hungry to see, to record my existence through my individual vision of it.
What catches your eye?
A combination of masculinity, detail, individuality, and human vulnerability. Men who are at home within themselves, alive in their ability to share some spark of their humanity with me. Men who have an inner life, and an inner light that I recognize within me, within both of us.
Tell us about your process or techniques.
I start by just chilling, sitting and talking with the man I'm about to photograph. I'm very laid back, and I enjoy that time when I get to just look at them, look in their eyes, let them look in my eyes in return, so that we can both see and feel aspects of each other, in each other.
How do you choose your subjects?
Mostly, I used to talk to people I met while walking down the street, I used to be really cool at that. I've found models on the subway. I have stood in the middle of the sidewalk with my camera waiting and watching the men who walk into me, or walk away from me. Feeling the vibe. Knowing who will respond to me, and who won't. Before the internet I placed ads in papers. Right now it's mostly men I meet casually in my everyday New York City life, or online.
How do you describe your work?
I am a portrait photographer. I think I shoot hot/cool, masculine, soulful, and honest portraits of men based on what I see as each man's individual visual strengths and poetry of body and gesture through my design and human vision. I try to make transcendent images of contemporary men.
What makes a good photograph to you?
I like it when someone takes a photograph that goes deeper than the surface. Something with a spark of life that is not a cliche. Strong photographs that truly come from a meaningful and individual place in the photographer, that turn me on and show me something, a way of visually letting me into seeing someone in a way that I haven't seen before.
I'm a visually articulate person. My memory holds much of the visual history of the second half of the 20th century. I've seen a lot of fine art, art history, painting, illustration, advertising images, anthropological photography, film, history of contemporary photography, posters, graphics, editorial magazine imagery, television, record covers, culture, style, porn, fashion, icons, logos, billboards, post cards, tattoos, typography, street life.
What artists do you take inspiration from and why?
Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Mike Disfarmer, Al Urban, Danny Lyon, Larry Clark, Irving Penn, Henry Dodger, WeeGee, Eadweard Muybridge, Henri Matisse, and of course Peter Hujar. Their photographs touch me because they hold onto that beautiful moment in time and space and the magic of life, and love.
Upcoming at the Leslie/Lohman Art Foundation: Stanley Stellar: A Photographer, May 18 - July 2, 2011, curated by Peter Weiermair. Opening reception and book launch of The Beauty of All Men, Tuesday, May 17, 6 - 8 p.m.
Want more breaking equality news & trending entertainment stories?
Check out our NEW 24/7 streaming service: the Advocate Channel!
Download the Advocate Channel App for your mobile phone and your favorite streaming device!
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
Here Are Our 2024 Election Predictions. Will They Come True?
November 07 2023 1:46 PM
17 Celebs Who Are Out & Proud of Their Trans & Nonbinary Kids
November 30 2023 10:41 AM
Here Are the 15 Most LGBTQ-Friendly Cities in the U.S.
November 01 2023 5:09 PM
Which State Is the Queerest? These Are the States With the Most LGBTQ+ People
December 11 2023 10:00 AM
These 27 Senate Hearing Room Gay Sex Jokes Are Truly Exquisite
December 17 2023 3:33 PM
10 Cheeky and Homoerotic Photos From Bob Mizer's Nude Films
November 18 2023 10:05 PM
30 Steamy Photos of Folsom Street Fair 2023 Debauchery
October 15 2023 11:06 PM
42 Flaming Hot Photos From 2024's Australian Firefighters Calendar
November 10 2023 6:08 PM
These Are the 5 States With the Smallest Percentage of LGBTQ+ People
December 13 2023 9:15 AM
60 Burly Pics from Bearrison Street Fair 2022
October 08 2023 8:30 PM
Watch Now: Advocate Channel
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Trending Stories & News
For more news and videos on advocatechannel.com, click here.
Latest Stories
LGBTQ+ women face more challenges than men in running for office: report
March 27 2024 5:33 PM
Houthis sentence 9 men to death on dubious 'sodomy' charges in Yemen
March 27 2024 2:39 PM
Pride
Yahoo FeedBreaking boundaries in gender-free fashion with Stuzo Clothing
March 27 2024 2:15 PM
BREAKING: Nex Benedict's autopsy report released
March 27 2024 1:00 PM
Meta is failing its LGBTQ+ users, says new GLAAD report
March 27 2024 12:24 PM
79% of American workers say anti-LGBTQ+ laws impact where they move: report
March 27 2024 11:41 AM
Plus
Yahoo FeedInjectable HIV treatment, prevention: Everything you need to know
March 26 2024 10:45 PM
Ronna McDaniel, tied up by her Trump lies, drowns in an aquarium of her own making
March 26 2024 9:00 PM
The ultimate guide to cannabis in Provincetown
March 26 2024 6:40 PM
New York Times fails to include trans voices in coverage, say GLAAD, Media Matters
March 26 2024 6:31 PM