Alvin Baltrop
The Piers (male portrait)

The Piers (male portrait)
The Piers (male portrait)
The Piers (male portrait)
ArtistAmerican, 1948–2004
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • The Piers (male portrait)
Date1975–1986
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 12 7/8 × 8 5/8 in. (32.7 × 21.9 cm)
Sheet: 12 7/8 × 8 5/8 in. (32.7 × 21.9 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by the LTR Lewis Cloverdale Foundation, Inc., the Joe D. Wheeler Photography Endowment, Michael A. Chesser, Jeanne and Mickey Klein, Edward Osowski, the Adam R. Rose Foundation, Clinton T. Willour, Joan and Howard Maisel Philanthropic Fund of the Houston Jewish Community Foundation, and various donors in honor of Edward Osowski
Object number2014.2
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
Description

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.




ProvenanceThe artist, New York, d. 2014; The Alvin Baltrop Trust; purchased by the MFAH, 2014.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions recto or verso]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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