Stanley Stellar

Introducing our Issue 18 cover story featuring the iconic photographer.

Happy Friday, Happy Labor Day,

Today we have the honor of sharing our first story from Issue 18 of the magazine. It also happens to be the cover story. It’s a beautifully written feature by Hussein Omar, on photographer Stanley Stellar.

Stanley spent many days in the 1970’s at the long-gone piers on the West side of New York, photographing the gay and trans people who would cruise the empty, derelict structures that jutted out along the side of Lower Manhattan.

Stanley insisted on “depicting gay life as joyous, horny, and free” which is why his work from the 1970’s feels so electric even today. I came of age in the 1990’s and was subjected to so much doom and gloom about AIDS, so when I made it to my early 20’s the thought of barebacking with a stranger was something that filled me with both excitement and utter dread. At that time, it was not on the menu. Naturally the free-fucking, unbridled stories I read about of pre-AIDS New York were majorly appealing.

Today we have PreP, and in many ways it feels like we have been liberated back to the glory days depicted in Stanley’s photographs. Of course those glory days weren’t so glorious at the time, homophobia, both systemic and casual was a daily cross to bear for queers of that era. The fact that Stanley rose above all that nonsense to document the joyous and horny side of queer life was an act of both resistance and resilience. If there’s anything we would like GAYLETTER to be remembered for, it’s those two traits. Which is why we knew his work deserved to be featured on our cover and inside the current issue.

Please enjoy our Issue 18 cover story below. And if you haven’t already, please consider upgrading to a paid membership so we can continue to bring more features like this. You will have access to the this, and every story we publish going forward.

xoxo

Tom & Abi

To see the story in print, and so much more, pick up a copy of GAYLETTER Issue 18 HERE

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TEXT BY HUSSEIN OMAR 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY STANLEY STELLAR

PORTRAITS BY MARY MANNING

All photographs courtesy of the artist and Kapp Kapp gallery, New York.