Ves Pitts is a New York-based photographer who has been documenting the erotic and performance community in New York, New Orleans, London and Paris for 15 years. In the ’90s he photographed the Pork performances at the legendary and gloriously sleazy New York City leather bar, The Lure (R.I.P.), has worked with the iconic fetish filmmaker Maria Beatty, contributed to the now defunct gay erotic website allamericankink.com, and was included in last year’s Act Art 6, a multimedia group show in London. Currently, he’s working on a series of portraits of New York and London-based, counter-culture queer and disturbed nightlife performers.

This is a series he shot for of the multimedia performance artist Inbred Hybrid Collective.

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We asked him to explain the shoot himself…

“As part of an exploration, in 2008 I started working with Inbred Hybrid Collective on a series of photos. During these shoots he would morph into various eroticized fashion and hedonist archetypes. Our collaborations evolved through interaction with found materials and objects, weird cultural ideas and stimulants, all independent of morals, time, money or objectives. There were no limitations. All sane and rational sentiments were chewed up and vomited out the window. Having no restrictions enabled us to explore our art, both personally and with an eye toward the changing environment of artist collaborations.”
“While I was photographing him he was also videotaping our shenanigans for his video installations. At my recent solo photography show at Christopher Henry Gallery called “Cake Bomb”, he exhibited a video installation created from the documentation of this miasma, entitled “The Hang-maid’s Tale”. We plan to continue our visual research into the horrors of the mind and body as we peel back the dead layers of perception in search of chthonic truth.”

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This week’s East Village Boy of the Week is Patrick, from New York
Photographed exclusively for EVB by McKenzie Adkins

34 years ago Harvey Milk ushered in great political change by becoming one of the first openly gay elected officials in the US, and did so with a definitively gay agenda. Thanks to Gus Van Sant’s recent movie MILK, it’s a story that’s finally being told to a much wider audience. To honor both the man, the film, and the upcoming book “Milk: A Harvey Milk Pictorial Biography”, we asked photographer Dan Nicoletta, a friend and photographer of Harvey Milk and the Castro of the 70s, and of today, to dig into his personal archives and share some less-publicized images and stories with us. -Editor

Now, 34 years later after my rite of passage into the Queendom of Queerdom, I wonder what stands the test of time, which ideas remain essential and which cease to have gravity? Through Gus Van Sant’s film MILK, my work has made it’s way onto people’s radar and the results run the gamut. The most telling moment was when a 20-year-old boy living in Orlando called to thank me for helping to make the world a better place - he had just snuck out of the house to go see MILK. I veered the conversation to the notion that he too could make a difference, and then he shyly vanished. Harvey’s mythical boy from Altoona still exists. The Orlando boy reflects a broader reality, and that the film does reach and inspire is the one of the great successes of the project. It carries forward an essential theme of Harvey’s - the right to love who you choose, visibly, without fear of harm.

Many of us were the embodiment of the boy from Altoona, Pennsylvania, spoken about in Harvey’s “Hope” speech. When I came to San Francisco in 1974 and landed on Castro Street, I barely had my toe in the waters of being out. Goofy and wet behind the ears would be an understatement. It helped that a stroll down Castro Street to buy a loaf of bread was a kissing and hugging fest - there was little room for uncertainty. Ebullience was in the air, and my last traces of self-doubt were replaced by more glittery ways thanks to the environment we were co-creating, and I documented my wonderment the whole time.

The era started as laconic times of pot luck dinners, the Stud Bar and Sylvester’s music, but it rapidly transformed into a epic opera in 1977 after Anita Bryant and her legions decided that a life of same-sex pro-sexuality had to be stopped - and they would stop at nothing. But once provoked, neither would we. We had lived in the shadows of hate for too long. In retrospect I am grateful for having experienced self-loathing first-hand because the echo of that self-knowledge, though but a vague memory, informs my enormous respect for the LGBT civil rights movement. I feel outreach remains an essential challenge of the movement. We have a tremendous responsibility to engender a sense of self-worth, vitality and safety in the cities and in the hinterlands - and we all get to invent what that looks like in 2009 and beyond.

(top of the page) Harvey’s ashes wrapped in Doonesbury - his favorite cartoon. The bear bubble bottle was a nod to Mr. Bill, a silly skit on Saturday Night Live, and the grape Kool-Aid was an irreverent nod to the People’s Temple mass suicide when more than 900 Bay Area Temple members died in a murder suicide ritual just two weeks prior. On December 2, 1978, 30 or so of Harvey’s pals sailed out to sea on a 50-foot vintage sailing vessel named the Lady Frei, and just past the Golden Gate Bridge we gave him a canon salute and scattered his ashes, along with the grape Kool-Aid and peach colored roses. The roses were in honor of his favorite opera, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.

(above) Castro Street cruising, August, 1976. This was after the Castro Street Fair, though on many an average weekend day, certain portions of the street would be lined with guys cruising for camaraderie and sex. It was convenient living only a block away. Guys would file down the denim on their jeans so their crotch bulges would show off better. Thus the humble beginnings of the distressed denim look.(above left) Gay Freedom Day, 1975. I think this is Johnny Bonk’s butt. Christopher, aka Amour Starr, is on the sidewalk below. Their galaxy was a Castro neighborhood household called The Bourgeois Palace. These were some of the most inventive drag queens with the biggest hair and headdresses, and they were defying the more classic notions of drag, to pass as women. Their predecessors The Cockettes had disbanded by this time, but they still peppered the scene and their influence was lasting. I built my career chasing certain of these queens around like a little puppy dog, always trying to get the definitive shots of these fabulous and known community personalities. How fleeting fame is and yet how enduring the rite of passage remains. The players change but the ritual of discovery and exhibition is still essential.

(above right) Castro Street Fair, August, 1975. Artist Violet Ray’s moving art piece. Violet plunked this sun-tan lotion billboard piece down all throughout the fair that day and people used it for photo ops. Exhibitionism was king.
(above) Harvey Milk shares the daily comic strip with friend Denton Smith, Spring 1976. Denton and I have remained emotionally connected all of these years. There are some of us that had a special place in Harvey and Scott’s hearts, and the shared knowledge that we were close to the heart of things continues to gives us strength and comfort in ways that are unmatched.

(below top) Castro Street Fair, circa August 1976. Taken from Harvey and Scott’s apartment above the camera store at 573 and 575 Castro. Harvey and his lover Scott Smith helped start The Castro Street Fair in 1974, and by the 1980s the fair grew a few more blocks down Market Street and the side streets, attracting thousands of people to San Francisco for their vacations - and it still does. The various fairs have been dubbed “The High Holy Days”.

(below middle) Etta James at The Stud Bar, circa 1976. Note the boy in the foreground sucking down poppers - kids, don’t try that at home. Etta James and poppers what else is there to say? The Stud was and remains a favored grassroots boho watering hole. It’s where I instinctively went the night that Harvey was killed.


(above) Me in the Fall of 1976. I was determined to make a mark in the world as an artist. Before I started working at Castro Camera I could barely afford a few rolls of Tri-X and beers at the Stud Bar, but the scarcity didn’t phase me, we all loved being in San Francisco and we never worried much about what our next adventure would be. Of course getting asked by Harvey and Scott to work at Castro Camera was one of the great chances of my lifetime. Castro Camera was an amazing experiment. The gay film festival essentially started out of there, I met a lot of the freelance photographers in town there, and my political activism began there. Harvey registered me to vote - I said sure, not because of any sense of activism, but because my friend had asked me to do it. I in turn registered hundreds more.
(above top) November 8, 1977. Harvey Milk running towards supporters that were gathered in front of Castro Camera on the night of his victorious election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as one of the first openly gay candidates in the world. For years I was annoyed that someone stepped in front of me just as Harvey jumped off of his motorcycle an ran towards the crowd, but now I love that this is out of focus… this was quite possibly the best night of my life…

(above bottom) November 8, 1977. Harvey Milk addressing the crowd outside his Castro Street Camera Store on the night of his victory. This is the moment that follows Harvey jumping off the motorcycle. It was a night of revelry and joy. We had attained the seemingly unattainable.

(below left) December, 1977. Harvey Milk clowning around at Castro Camera. Someone gave him this battery operated hat with an emergency light in case he ever needed to get the attention of his fellow Board of Supervisors. He would turn the light on and feign beseeching Madame President’s, Diane Feinstein, attention. He was ever the class clown and humor kept us buoyant during the hard times.
(above right) April, 1978. Audience members at a free Angels of Light show, Sci-Clones. Left to right: Esmerelda’s daughter Lavender, John Apple, Beau and Miss Tiddy and others. The audience was as much a part of the show as what was happening on stage. There was a segment of the Angel’s following that partied hard. Acid and pot were augmented by angel dust, heroin, speed and MDA. Those party-boys fascinated me - they were stunning and always loaded. Sadly, many didn’t live long. The show was an amazing sci-fi epic drama featuring music by members of the celebrated band Tuxedomoon. Check out their book.

(below left) Puss print pajama party, May 1978. I left early but I hear that several quaaludes later it got pretty touchy-feely for those that stayed for the sleepover. There were a lot of my friends from the Angels of Light Theatre milieu there, and early rumblings of the Radical Faeries too. Teddi Matthew is in the left foreground - he was a lovely and brilliant activist and can be heard in the groundbreaking documentary film Word Is Out.

(below right) Divine terrorizing the Trockadero Dance Club, October 29, 1978. He had just thrown an entire cake into the audience, nailing many, and was on his way to the other side of the stage to tear down the Trock’s other white and silver faux palm trees. I guess he didn’t like the decor. This was just after his starring role in John Water’s, Female Trouble.

(above) The legendary North Beach Black Cat Bar performer Jose Sarria, Supervisor Harvey Milk and beloved drag Diva Mavis at the Emperor and Empress Coronation Drag Ball, October 28, 1978. They are presenting a check from an anonymous donor to purchase uniforms for the first ever Gay and Lesbian Freedom Marching Band. After Harvey was elected, there was roaring applause for him at these drag balls. He had always respected the old school drag scene, and they were a significant dimension of his constituency. His election was a reflection of their growing power in local politics, so they loved it when he showed up to pay his respects.

(above left) May 21, 1979. A demonstration protesting the manslaughter sentencing of Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone’s killer, Dan White. Seven years for the murder of two city officials. Known as the “White Night Riots”, this is on the Steps of City Hall just before the demo erupted into rioting. That night was the closest thing to martial law that I have ever experienced. I walked home that night through back streets, afraid of being victimized by roving police officers

(above right) White Night Riots, May 21, 1979. A row of 11 or so parked police cars burned that night - they were an easy target once the rioting started. People milled around mesmerized until the civic center area was cleared by formations of riot cops grunting unearthly, unforgettable sounds, in unison.
(above) San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade, June 1980, from then Mayor Feinstein’s balcony. (1982 brought the addition of “Lesbian” to the name of the event, and 1997 saw the addition of “Bisexuals” and “Transgender”.) This was the year a carnival mid-way was booked for the festival. That thrilled the carny in me, but many felt this was the beginning of the Disney-fication of the movement, which by and large did not keep them off the merry-go-round.

(below left) Dan Nicoletta today.

(below right) The Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Sculpture by Daub Firmin and Hendrickson Sculpture Group. Unveiled in City Hall, to much fanfare, on May 22, 2008, Harvey’s 78th birthday. Curation and fundraising for the project took over four years, partly due to the pre-MILK film cultural disconnect that existed about Harvey’s legacy - even in San Francisco. I was part of a consortium of devoted people who would not rest until this memorial was completed. It is the shining beacon of hope that we imagined it would be, in the breathtaking building that directly inspired Harvey’s own sense of hope. To know and taste this first hand requires your own pilgrimage to the ceremonial rotunda where the sculpture is permanently housed. And don’t forget to walk up the grand staircase to get to the sculpture… Harvey would insist.

All images © Dan Nicoletta

Also check out “Milk: A Harvey Milk Pictorial Biography”, foreword by Armistead Maupin, introduction by Lance Black, the screenwriter of the film “MILK”, and a “making of the movie” section produced in conjunction with Focus Films. It features many photographs by Dan Nicoletta and other notable photographers of the era, and also includes historic photos from The Milk-Smith Collection at the Hormel Gay and Lesbian Center at the San Francisco Public Library. Published by Newmarket Press. First printing of 5,000 copies in the US only.

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Once again, this week’s Boy of the Week comes as a pair. Twins!
George and Yusef, from Barcelona
Photographed for EVB by Ignacio Lozano

Happy new year and welcome to 2009! Our first Boy of the Week of 2009 come as a pair
Luc (left) and Ryan (right) from Brooklyn
Photographed for EVB by Nodeth Vang

Brian Kenny is a New York based multi-talented, multi-limbed multi-media artist. New York based, but not New York confined, his art has been exhibited around the world. He creates drawings, paintings, videos, installations, music, performances, sculptures with materials including durags, wood, wires, trash, words, found objects, shooting targets and fetish gear to name a few. His work is self-examining, bold and full of energy. Whether in his beautiful, almost puzzle-like target drawings or in his dreamy music tracks and experimental films, Brian Kenny is full of life and his art is a testimony to this.

Gio Black Peter: What’s up? How were your holidays? What did you get up to?

Brian Kenny: I went to the Under Armour store in Annapolis and they have a SUPER GAY larger-than-life bronze statue of a muscle-guy, all in tight spandex, with his butt sticking out, fists clenched and mouth open!

GBP: You moved around a lot as a kid because your parents were in the military. What was that like?

BK: It was exciting. I had a military ID and lived in Tennessee, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Massachusetts, Maryland, Ohio, DC, New Jersey and now New York City. But I won’t join the Army. If they took one look at my blog, I’m sure I’d be denied anyway. But, I do secretly wish I could go through boot camp. It would be soooo hot and satisfying to shave my head with 200 other recruits and eat, sleep, exercise and shoot guns together in sexy uniforms for six weeks.

GBP: I know what you mean about boot camp. I always wanted to go to Juvi for the same reason. Did you encounter any closeted Army brats or military guys on your travels as a kid?

BK: Unfortunately, no. The US military is still is very ‘don’t ask don’t tell’.
GBP: When did you start making art?

BK: When I was a little kid, I would build these enormous cities made out of toys, and then videotape myself stomping on and destroying them so I could watch it later on television in slow motion. I also made this one video called World Conquest, where I made characters out of clay and used stop-motion animation to tell the story of a mad scientist who feels like everyone hates him, so he builds an atomic bomb to destroy the town, but after having fun and getting drunk at a bar the night before, he changes his mind and becomes mayor. I later made a sequel where another angry loser with a pet T-rex finds the old atomic bomb and plans to use it, but eventually gets killed by a team of action heroes. But an unexpected earthquake ends up destroying everything and everyone.

GBP: Those videos seem to be about destruction. Why do you think that is? How do you think it’s manifested in your current work? Also why was documenting the destruction more important than documenting the building or the finished piece?

BK: Destruction is awesome because it’s so fast and powerful. It’s a morbid fascination, like always staring when you drive by a car accident. I think this feeling is very common to people, especially in America, especially with all those films like Independence Day, or The Day After Tomorrow. I also got a kick out of the destruction - there was a kind of emotional catharsis to destroying a city of toys after a rough day at school feeling inferior. But destruction and construction go hand in hand, and I spent far more time as kid drawing infinite futuristic cities and building theme parks on that computer game “Roller Coaster Tycoon”.

GBP: A recurring subject in your artwork is “wiggers”. When were you first introduced to wiggers and why do you think they’ve made such an impression on you?

BK: I started noticing them when I started middle school in Colorado. I remember being very attracted to my classmates and friends who would sag their baggy jeans or basketball shorts and act like thugs, like adding a limp to your walk, or talking with an accent. They always seemed so cool to me, and by high school, I was sagging too. Eventually I turned into a total wigger. I would blast hip-hop in my car and steal basketball shorts from the mall. I also made some really sexy, kind of bisexual wigger friends who introduced me to cigarettes and durags.

GBP: Bisexual wigger friends? I’m sure there is a story there - anything you want to share?

BK: I remember once jerking-off the hottest wigger boy (who had a girlfriend) in the back of my car after hanging out at Six Flags. He was like “don’t tell anyone, yo, I’m not a homo.”

GBP: You also incorporate a lot of animals in your drawings. Did you grow up with animals?

BK: I grew up with a dog, and two cats. Our dog Max, a Dachshund-Beagle, who would eat anything - cat poop, his own vomit, and survived eating three chocolate birthday cakes and an accidental anti-freeze poisoning. And our cats had a tendency to tear unlucky squirrels and mice into pieces on our doorstep like Passover decorations.

GBP: Also, the animals you depict are often wearing articles of clothing worn by humans. For example, a dog wearing a durag. How did this come about?

BK: I think animals wearing clothes is funny. In New York I’m always seeing people who dress-up their dogs with little sweaters and jackets. So, why not thug them out with jerseys and durags? Anyway, I get tired of always drawing animals the way they should appear in reality, so it’s more interesting for me to dress them up or add extra legs or combine them with other creatures.

GBP: What animal represents you best and why?

BK: A deer. I’m big, startle easily and I’m pretty horny.

GBP: You made 25 etchings to coincide with your age. I know it’s not the first time you incorporated your age in your artwork. Is age something you think about?

BK: I like to obsessively put my age into my drawings as a kind of time-stamp. That way, in the future, anyone can look at the number and see how old I was when I made it.
GBP: When did you start drawing on targets?

BK: In 2006, I found these police practice-shooting targets in Chinatown and began drawing on them, sometimes with my friends. Last spring when we did a show in Norway, Slava Mogutin and I shot up a bunch with real handguns. It was so cool. Firing a gun is so exciting! I hope to do it again.

GBP: What do you think excited you about shooting the gun? Also, what made you think to draw on targets? Do you think there is a connection between the videos you made as a kid of the toy cities being destroyed and the targets being shot?

BK: Those targets were never really complete until I shot them. In the words of Mikhail Bakhunin, “Destruction is creation”, and judging by your performance aesthetic Gio, I think you might agree!

GBP: Ha! It’s true! I think that’s why we work so well together. Do you have a process when you do a target drawing?

BK: Not really - I just surround myself with markers and start drawing. I always tend to draw things about current events and things that personally interest me at the time.
GBP: What have you been working on recently?

BK: I’ve been working on a series of matrioshkas (Russian nesting-dolls) plastered with pictures of sexy gymnasts!

GBP: Why Matrioshkas?

BK: ‘Cuz they’re from Russia, with love, and they can fit up any size ass.

GBP: What kind of work do you see yourself doing in the future? You draw, paint, make videos, installations - anything you want to do that you haven’t done yet? Any subjects that interest you that you want to explore?

BK: I really want to put my own satellite into orbit.

GBP: What is your current favorite subject?

BK: Metabods and amputees - sexy guys with extra or missing limbs.

GBP: I always fantasize about guys without mouths (that way they can’t talk back). Why are you interested in Metabods and amputees?

BK: I’m constantly wishing I had an extra limbs to hold this, while I do that, and amputees just make me happy. They can do no wrong.

GBP: Besides art what are some other things that interest you?

BK: Conspiracy theories! I don’t subscribe to most them but constantly look for more, both old and new. I just discovered my new favorite theory that claims there is a whole race of reptilian creatures living in the fourth-dimension that have possessed and control all of our world leaders, including Obama!
GBP: What is SUPERM?

BK: SUPERM is the name for the collaborative artwork created by Slava and me. After doing a lot of work together, we opened SUPERM. It’s a reference to the tattoo on Slava’s back that reads in Cyrillic “SUPERMOGUTIN” - and it’s similar to the word ‘sperm’. Or, as our friend Josh says, “Hey look, it’s SU and PERM!”

But seriously, it’s an ongoing project that includes different genres, mediums and people. SUPERM is an open and welcoming platform for like-minded artists, both professional and amateur. Slava and I have had SUPERM shows in six countries and collaborated with over a dozen of great artists, like Christophe Chemin, Bruce LaBruce, Robert W. Richards and you, chocolate face!

GBP: What do you look for in a collaborator?

BK: Anyone willing to be creative and act on it! Sounds simple right? Both of us know how passive most people are…
GBP: Who would you like to collaborate with, living or dead?

BK: I would give up my legs to work with William Burroughs, David Wojnarowicz, Basquiat, Attila Richard Lukacs, Harmony Korine, Gaspar Noé and NASA. All of them are super creative and masterful in my opinion.

GBP: How did you and Slava meet?

BK: We met at a nightclub called Opaline in the East Village. I was having a cigarette outside and I noticed this sexy guy with bright blue eyes watching me. He was so striking and macho - so I followed him in and asked if he wanted to dance. He was a terrible dancer. We both ditched our friends to go to his place and fuck all night. The rest is art history.

GBP: How long have you been living and making art together?

BK: We started making art together, literally, the very next day after we met, over four years ago. It was love at first art! He told me he was shooting this experimental film with his skinhead friend who was supposed to be laying on the sidewalk next to the trash cans wearing only boots and a diaper and getting egged by another guy. He asked if I wanted to throw eggs at him. It was the strangest request ever, but it sounded fun and I was really horny for Slava, so I agreed. That short film Wake Up Paperboy was our first collaboration. It premiered in Moscow a couple of months later, and ever since has been shown at different film festivals and art and club venues around the globe.

GBP: What is it like working together?

BK: Almost as good as fucking together.

GBP: What animal best represents Slava?

BK: A pitbull. Pitbulls are handsome, rough, loyal, stubborn and hot-headed, just like Slava.
GBP: You are also currently working on a music project titled “Mechanical Sex Animals”. What’s that about?

BK: It’s a mash-up that includes soundtracks from our videos and some new original music, composed of my own beats, mixed with sound-bites and samples of TV advertisements, YouTube videos, random conversations, televangelists speaking in tongues, homeless people ranting on the subway and so on. It’s like an audio diary of the past few years. There are also a couple of tracks featuring guest performers, including you, Vaginal Davis, and Tha Pumpsta.

GBP: When and where can we get “Mechanical Sex Animals”?

BK: I expect to finish the album very soon and will make it available online, but I also want to produce a limited edition vinyl 12” for sale that will include SUPERM artwork and packaging.

GBP: What else do you have coming up?

BK: Currently, Slava and I have a show in New York at Envoy Gallery. It’s entitled “White Is Dirty When Ugly” and runs until January 11th. Also, our good friend, a transsexual artist from Argentina, Topacio Fresh, just opened his own gallery in Madrid, called La Fresh Gallery, and she-he invited us to be a part of the inaugural show. In January we’ll be showing some of the shot target-drawings from Bergen in a big museum show in Haifa, Israel. The show is named after David Cronenberg’s great movie History of Violence. We are also working on the second volume of SUPERM videos.

GBP: I’m looking forward to SUPERM 2009! I think for 2009 I’m going to quit drinking, (water that is). What’s your New Year’s resolution?

BK: To stop being funny.
You can check out more of Brian’s work on his website and his blog.

All artwork ©Brian Kenny. Photographs ©Slava Mogutin.

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