3 July 2021
Alvin Baltrop
30. April - 3. Juli 2021
Die Fotografien von Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) waren zu Lebzeiten des Künstlers so gut wie unbekannt. Als Afroamerikaner aus der Arbeiterklasse, dessen Bilder noch dazu häufig sexuell sehr explizit waren, stieß Baltrop nur auf Ablehnung. Seit ungefähr einem Jahrzehnt werden sie nun aber zunehmend gezeigt. Es gab Ausstellungen im Bronx Museum of the Arts, im MoMA/PS1 in New York City und bei Third Streaming in New York, wie auch im Reina Sofia in Madrid und dem Contemporary Art Museum in Houston. Bei weitem der größte Teil der vorhandenen Fotografien von Baltrop zeigt die Szenerie an den verfallenden Hudson River-Piers am Rand von Greenwich Village und dem Meat Packing District. In den 1970er und frühen 1980er Jahren, als Baltrop dort mit der Kamera unterwegs war, war das ein Ort für Männer auf der Suche nach Sex, oder auch einfach zum Sonnenbaden. Manche errichteten sich dort eine provisorische Wohnstelle, andere hingen nur ab und genossen den Glanz der Industriemonumente. Es konnte einem aber auch übel mitgespielt werden: Diebstahl, Angriffe auf Schwule, sogar Mordfälle kamen vor.
Baltrop machte dieser Ort anfangs Angst. Er fühlte sich aber auch hingezogen und begann, wie er sagte, aus der Position eines Voyeurs dort zu fotografieren. Allmählich wurde er zu einem Stammgast, zeitweise lebte er sogar ganz in der Nähe in einem Umzugswagen, mit dem er auch sein Geld verdiente. Seine Beziehung zu manchen von den Besuchern der Piers geht aus seinen direkten Portraits deutlich hervor. In Bildern, in denen Männer sich vor der Kamera von Baltrop ausziehen, wird die Beziehung sogar noch deutlicher. Manche der Fotografien wirken so intim, als wäre der Sex, auf den sie hindeuten, für die Kamera inszeniert worden - oder als wäre das Fotografieren ein Teil der Begegnung gewesen.
Es sieht danach aus, als wollte Baltrop vor allem auch die Umgebung abbilden, in der all das stattfand: die Piers. Manchmal muss man sehr genau hinsehen, um die Menschen inmitten der heruntergekommenen Gebäude überhaupt wahrzunehmen, geschweige denn, was sie gerade tun. Vielleicht sitzen sie ja nur auf einem Fensterbrett oder stehen an einer Anlegestelle. Oder, das wäre schon ein bisschen beunruhigender, es sind hingestreckte Körper, mit Tüchern bedeckt, mutmaßlich schlafend. In einigen Fällen gibt es keine menschlichen Gestalten, hier ist Baltrops Gegenstand dann die Architektur selbst: gewaltige Strukturen voll Melancholie.
Baltrop produzierte die meisten seiner Fotografien als kleinformatige Abzüge, ungefähr 13 x 18 cm in der Regel. Nur bei wenigen entschied er sich für ein größeres Format. Einige Motive gibt es in unterschiedlichen Größen und Ausschnitten. Gerade bei den kleinformatigen Fotos, die einen Pier aus der Distanz einer Aufnahme von einem anderen, benachbarten Pier zeigen, ist die Information darauf so kleinteilig und dicht, dass man sehr nahe heran gehen muss, um etwas zu erkennen. Die Pier-Fotografien von Baltrop werden als bedeutende Zeugnisse der Geschichte New Yorks in zweierlei Hinsicht gesehen: sie bewahren eine verschwundene Zeit der industriellen Stadtlandschaft New Yorks auf, und sie zeigen eine schwule Kultur vor AIDS. Das trifft zweifellos zu. Man unterstellt Baltrop so aber hauptsächlich ein dokumentarisches Interesse. Die intime Anmutung seiner Fotografien, ihre durchdachten Kompositionen, ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf das Spiel von Licht und Schatten lassen aber erkennbar werden, dass es Baltrop um deutlich mehr ging.
Douglas Crimp
Alvin Baltrop
30 April - 3 July 2021
The photographs of Alvin Baltrop (1948-2004) were virtually unknown during the artist’s lifetime.
A working-class African American, many of whose photographs are sexually explicit, Baltrop encountered only rejection. In the past decade his work has belatedly begun to be exhibited, including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, MoMA/PS1 in New York City, and Third Streaming in New York, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, and the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston. By far the largest cache of Baltrop’s extant photographs depicts the scene at the dilapidated Hudson River piers adjacent to Greenwich Village and the Meat Packing District. During the 1970s and into the 1980s, when Baltrop photographed there, the piers were a site of pleasure and danger for men seeking sex, sunbathing, making a provisional home, or just hanging out and taking in the splendor of the industrial ruins. More nefarious deeds also took place: theft, gay-bashing, even murder.
Baltrop claimed to be terrified of the place initially, but also intrigued; he began taking photographs, he said, as a voyeur. Eventually he became a denizen of the piers, at times living nearby in his moving van, which also provided his source of income. His rapport with certain of the pier’s users is clear enough in the straightforward portraits he made there, and is even clearer in photographs of men removing their clothes to pose for Baltrop. Some photographs are so intimate as to suggest that the sex they depict is staged for his camera - or, indeed, that photographing was part of the action.
Baltrop seems to have wanted above all to portray the environment in which these activities took place, the piers themselves. Sometimes you have to look closely even to locate people within the disintegrating remains of the pier sheds, much less see what they’re up to; and in any case they might simply be sitting on a window ledge or standing on a mooring. Or, more disquieting, they might be prone bodies covered with blankets, presumably sleeping. In many cases, there are no figures at all; Baltrop’s subject is simply the architecture in its vastness and melancholy.
Baltrop printed the majority of his photographs small, no more than 5 x 7 inches (approx. 13 x 18 cm), although he printed a few images considerably larger. There are variant sizes and crops of a few pictures. Because of the small size and density of information in many of the photographs, especially those of one pier taken from the distance of another, adjacent pier, you have to get very close to the picture to really see it. It has been noted that Baltrop’s pier photographs constitute a significant record of a lost era of New York industrial landscape and gay culture’s pre-AIDS history. There is truth in that view, but it suggests that Baltrop’s project was essentially documentary in nature, whereas the intimacy of the pictures, their studied compositions, their attention to the play of light and shadow testify to a wider ambition.
Douglas Crimp
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (coastline)”, n.d.
(1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
image size: 12.5 x 18.5 cm
paper size: 28 x 35 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (feet on deck)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
12.5 x 18.6 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (man lying on deck)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
12 x 17 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (man under blanket)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
11.5 x 17 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (men on deck)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
12.5 x 19 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (man in bunk)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
silver gelatin print
11.7 x 17.1 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Navy (man at table)”, n.d. (1969-1972)
c-print
20 x 25.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Back of head”, n.d.
silver gelatin print
8.6 x 13.7 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting on windowsill)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.8 x 17.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing jockstrap)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 32.4 x 19 cm
paper size: 35.6 x 27.9 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing jockstrap)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 18 x 11.5 cm
paper size: 25.5 x 20.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing jockstrap)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.5 x 11.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing jockstrap, holding shorts)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.9 x 11 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing jockstrap, holding shorts, walking)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
9.2 x 8.9 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man wearing shorts)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.5 x 11.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man in jeans)”, n.d. (1975-1984)
silver gelatin print
image size: 17 x 12 cm
paper size: 25.3 x 20.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man undressing)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.8 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man undressing)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.8 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (two men)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
13.1 x 10.7 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (figure in hallway)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
image size: 9 x 14 cm
paper size: 10 x 15 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man on second level of warehouse)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
image size: 14 x 9 cm
paper size: 15 x 10.1 cm
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (figure in hallway)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
image size: 9 x 14 cm
paper size: 10 x 15 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man on second level of warehouse)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
image size: 14 x 9 cm
paper size: 15 x 10.1 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (exterior with four figures)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
15.9 x 23.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (exterior view)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.3 x 17.7 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (exterior view)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.8 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (exterior view with figures)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 16.8 x 24.8 cm
paper size: 20.3 x 25.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man leaning)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
32.1 x 20.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (Tava from back)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.4 x 17.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (Tava from behind)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.5 x 17 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man holding pants)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
24.8 x 20.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man leaning)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.1 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man going through clothing)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
18.8 x 28.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting, looking down)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
23.8 x 19 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting and smoking)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.8 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (two men sitting)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
19.7 x 24.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (warehouse interior)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.5 x 24.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (warehouse interior)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
15.2 x 24.1 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (broken window)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
18.3 x 12.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“Mark”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 12 x 17 cm
paper size: 12.5 x 20.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man looking in window)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size 17 x 12 cm
paper size 25.5 x 20.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (exterior view)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
25 x 19.6 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man lying in room)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.4 x 20 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (body under cloth)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.4 x 16.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (body under cloth, umbrella)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.8 x 16.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (warehouse interior)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
14 x 25 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (warehouse interior)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.5 x 16.7 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (body under cloth)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17.8 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man seen through window)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
6.4 x 6.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (group lying down)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
10.8 x 17.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (two men squatting, handjob)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.5 x 11.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man in handcuffs)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.4 x 17.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (three men on dock)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 15 x 22.5 cm
paper size: 20.2 x 25.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man walking in wreckage)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
15.9 x 10.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (collapsed warehouse)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
24 x 18 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (smoking pier)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
25.2 x 20 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (building collapsing)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.7 x 16.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (warehouse and demolition truck)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
10.5 x 16.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (wreckage)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17 x 11.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (Hudson River)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
14.9 x 10.1 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man with two dogs, looking across water)”, n.d. (1975-1984)
silver gelatin print
11.3 x 19.6 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“World Trade Center at Night (Westside Ghost)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print (vintage print)
image size: 21.5 x 32.5 cm
paper size: 27.6 x 34 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Truck with motorcycle, elevated west side highway”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.6 x 17 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Pier façade with World Trade Center”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11 x 17.8 cm
paper size: 20.3 x 25 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“West Side Highway and pier façade”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
11.5 x 17 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Jimmy Carter”, 1976
silver gelatin print
11.5 x 16.7cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (collapsed architecture)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11.7 x 18 cm
paper size: 20.2 x 25.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (collapsed architecture with figure)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11.7 x 18 cm
paper size: 20.1 x 25.3 cm
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (collapsed architecture)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11.7 x 18 cm
paper size: 20.2 x 25.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (collapsed architecture with figure)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11.7 x 18 cm
paper size: 20.1 x 25.3 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Rick”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.5 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man with roller skates)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
c-print
image size: 14 x 9 cm
paper size: 15 x 10.1 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Dog by water”, n.d.
c-print
12.5 x 17.6 cm
Alvin Baltrop
installation view
Galerie Buchholz, Berlin 2021
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17 x 11 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting with leg extended)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
7 x 10.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (portrait of young man from behind)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
17 x 11.4 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man from behind)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 33 x 21.5 cm
paper size: 35.3 x 27.8 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man sitting on ledge)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
image size: 11.1 x 7.3 cm
paper size: 12.7 x 10.2 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“The Piers (man from below)”, n.d. (1975-1986)
silver gelatin print
16.8 x 11.5 cm
Alvin Baltrop
“Cat on rocks”, n.d.
silver gelatin print on artist’s matte
25.7 x 26 cm
Alvin Baltrop
Alvin Baltrop
“Seated figure at The Cloisters”, 1965
silver gelatin print on cardboard
19.8 x 26.5 cm
