Hal fischer gay semiotics
“Gay Semiotics” Revisited
In 1977, San Francisco photographer Hal Fischer produced his photo-text project Gay Semiotics, a seminal examination of the “hanky code” used to signal sexual preferences of cruising gay men in the Castro district of San Francisco. Fischer’s pictures dissected the significance of colored bandanas worn in jeans pockets, as well as how the placement of keys and earrings might telegraph passive or active roles. He also photographed a series of “gay looks”—from hippie to leather to cowboy to jock—with text that pointed out key elements of gay street-style.
Julia Bryan-Wilson:You initially trained as a photographer at the University of Illinois. What brought you to the Bay Area, and what impact did that move have on your work?
Hal Fischer: I came here for graduate academy in photography at San Francisco Mention in 1975. I really wanted to study with Jack Fulton, but I didn’t want to pay the cash to go to the Art Institute. I figured that I could probably work with him as long as I was here. After I moved to the Bay Area, two central things happened. One was that I began writing for Artweek three months after I arrived, so I
Hal Fischer: Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men (CHERRY AND MART) - Softcover
Synopsis
Hal Fischer's Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Study of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men (1977) is one of the most important publications associated with California conceptual photography in the 1970s. This new edition reproduces the observe and feel of the imaginative volume, which reconfigured into a book format the 24 text-embedded images of Fischer's 1977 photographic series Gay Semiotics. The photographs in Gay Semiotics present the codes of sexual orientation and identification Fischer saw in San Francisco's Castro and Haight Ashbury districts, ranging from such sexual signifiers as handkerchiefs and keys to depictions of the gay fashion "types" of that era--from "basic gay" to "hippie" and "jock." Gay Semiotics also features Fischer's critical essay, which is marked by the same wry, anthropological tone found in the image/text configurations. Fischer's book circulated widely, finding a worldwide audience in both the gay and conceptual art communities. Fischer's insistence on the visual equivalence of word and image is a hallm
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Featured image is reproduced from Cherry and Martin's new edition of Hal Fischer's classic Gay Semiotics: A Photographic Research of Visual Coding Among Homosexual Men, the subject of a talk in David Senior's Classroom series today at the NY Art Book Fair and available in the ARTBOOK @ MoMA PS1 stores throughout the fair. "Traditionally western societies acquire utilized signifiers for non-accessibility. The wedding ring, engagement call, lavaliere or pin are signifiers for non-availability which are always attached to women. Signs for availability do not exist," Fischer wrote in 1977. "In gay culture, the reverse is correct. Signifiers exist for accessibility. Obviously, one reason behind this is that gays are less constrained by a type of code which defines people as property of others or feels the need to promote monogamy. The same-sex attracted semiotic is far more sophisticated than straight sign language, What It Was Like to Be a Gay Bloke in 1970s San Francisco
Hal Fischer’s 1977 book, Gay Semiotics, is a tongue-in-cheek look at gay existence in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. If the alike type of work were attempted today, say in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen or Chicago’s Boystown or even in the Castro, the work wouldn’t saunter the same fine line of artistic expression and anthropology. That’s because Fischer was uncovering a way of life that wasn’t celebrated outside of the gay world.
“I was uncovering something and I was celebrating it by using text and a certain way of photographing in a very deliberately man-made way to disarm it, to not make it threating,” Fischer said. “This isn’t Mapplethorpe doing S&M work, this is a 180-degree opposite.”
The work feels like a precursor to some modern-day blogs that combine street photography and portraiture—like The Sartorialist or Advanced Style—but with a focus on the various subcultures within the gay community. In the work, Fischer provided a humorous take on the various subtle methods of communication and identification male lover men partook in during that time: donning handkerchiefs to identify sexual preferences or how to properly wear co
What It Was Like to Be a Gay Bloke in 1970s San Francisco
Hal Fischer’s 1977 book, Gay Semiotics, is a tongue-in-cheek look at gay existence in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood. If the alike type of work were attempted today, say in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen or Chicago’s Boystown or even in the Castro, the work wouldn’t saunter the same fine line of artistic expression and anthropology. That’s because Fischer was uncovering a way of life that wasn’t celebrated outside of the gay world.
“I was uncovering something and I was celebrating it by using text and a certain way of photographing in a very deliberately man-made way to disarm it, to not make it threating,” Fischer said. “This isn’t Mapplethorpe doing S&M work, this is a 180-degree opposite.”
The work feels like a precursor to some modern-day blogs that combine street photography and portraiture—like The Sartorialist or Advanced Style—but with a focus on the various subcultures within the gay community. In the work, Fischer provided a humorous take on the various subtle methods of communication and identification male lover men partook in during that time: donning handkerchiefs to identify sexual preferences or how to properly wear co