After serving in the Navy during Vietnam, photographer
Alvin Baltrop returned to New York in the early 1970s and immersed himself in
the city’s decaying industrial landscape. From 1975 to 1986, Baltrop haunted
the dilapidated piers and warehouses located along the Hudson River in Lower
Manhattan and photographed clandestine gay sexual encounters, sunbathers,
prostitutes, artists, and various, sometimes violent, crimes committed in this
seemingly lawless, forgotten part of the city. Whereas some of Baltrop’s photographs
were taken at a distance, without the subject’s awareness, others, like the
image here, feature exhibitionists more than happy to be photographed at close
range.