In the summer of 1986, a young photographer shot hundreds of rolls of film documenting the pulsing rhythm of male bodies in the heat of the California sun. Moments of intimacy—a hand resting on a chest, bodies clasped in an embrace, lips parted for a kiss—reveal the sensuous pleasure of queer culture over a quarter century ago.
- AL 13 by Doug Ischar
Rejecting the role of objective observer, Ischar allowed his photography to be driven by desire. In the photograph AL 17, young athletes stretch in black Speedos against a backdrop of wet towels. “I wasn’t a neutral activist type who wanted to shoot the entirety of the gay world,” Ischar says. “I was very much driven by my own erotic passions. I didn’t just shoot the guys I found hot, but when I was going back through the negatives, I had to admit there was quite a bit of that going on.”
- AL 17 by Doug Ischar
