RICK CASTRO: S/M BLVD
STREET HUSTLERS PHOTOGRAPHS & REMEMBRANCES~ 1986-1999
A collection of photographs documenting the last generation of street hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard. While working as a stylist for Herb Ritts and Joel Peter-Witkin in the 1980s and 1990s, the photographer
Rick Castro created a series of portraits of hustlers he met on a 20-block stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard loosely boundaried by Van Ness Avenue on the east and La Brea Avenue on the west. Some collaborated with Castro on elaborate bondage scenes. Many he knew just long enough to snap a few frames before they disappeared forever.
S/M BLVD collects 33 of the images Castro made between 1986 and 1999, with a foreword by Sam Sweet and a map of central Hollywood. A long-form interview between Castro and Sam Sweet traces a backstory behind each figure. The faces in this book represent the final years of the outdoor tradition, before redevelopment and internet commerce changed the boulevard forever. Together, they form an intimate survey of a Los Angeles subculture widely assumed but scarcely documented.
Rick Castro and publisher Sam Sweet will be signing copies at the Queer Bazaar Book Fair this Saturday, June 24, 2pm, in Fiesta Hall at Plummer Park.
7377 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood, CA 90046. Details here.
The signing will be preceded by a Q&A in which we will discuss the storied Silver Lake leather bar Cuffs, the importance of Carl’s Jr. to hustlers, and the idea of Los Angeles as a fetish object. See you there.
if you cannot make it~ order info~
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