Desperado: Homos, Hustlers and Hooligans

The grand and infamous photography of Fred H. Berger. Challenging the status quo of conventional homoeroticism, this maverick photographer has created a provocative and transgressive body of work spanning three decades and three continents. From the grayness of Cold War era Berlin to the neon and video irradiated streets of 21st century Tokyo, and always back again to his beloved New York, Berger has passionately pursued his vision of radical beauty wherever it s led him. These are exquisitely androgynous models who embody the most alluring aspects of the masculine and the feminine -- effete, epicene ephebes. Two trademark styles reign within: documentary and fetishistic. Done in the style of a gay travelogue, the first section, Sex Tourism, features a scandalous assortment of gay cruisers, sex workers and street punks juxtaposed with images of urban cityscapes and phallic jet planes. In a campier and fetishistic vein, the second section, Action Adventure, debuts the artist s erotically charged, highly-stylized vignettes of violent confrontations between cowboys, soldiers, police and leather-clad villains, Berger s homage to the pulp comics of his youth.