Photographer’s Eye Presents “Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Street Hustler Photographs”
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A
Reservations not required. Seating is first-come, first-serve.
As a lifelong Los Angeleno, I know the pulse of my city. The surface shiny and sunny, the underbelly so dark one could burn in the shadows. My documentation of the street hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard began as an obsession around 1990. The last era of male sex workers before the Internet centered around in-person communication that was raw and lustful, yet surprisingly innocent. For me, this was the quintessential romanticized L.A. story. Rejected souls from everywhere come to Hollywood trying to make it with all they have: their own bodies. To date my efforts have produced numerous photos, my first script, co-directing a feature-length film (Hustler White, 1996), and three books.
Rick Castro is a photographer, filmmaker and writer. Based in Los Angeles his entire life, he has created portraits of Gore Vidal, Kenneth Anger, Michele Lamy, and the 14th Dalai Lama, and created fashion editorials for Christian Dior Homme, Cartier, and Rick Owens. His latest book, Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Street Hustler Photographs and Remembrances 1986-1999 (All Night Menu Books, 2023), combines images and memories of the brief times he spent with the guys he met while cruising up and down “the loop” in his 1967 Mercury Cougar. Castro’s photography and writings are currently featured in “Copy Machine Manifesto: Artists Who Make Zines,” at Brooklyn Museum in New York City, thru March 31, 2024.
Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.
All images © Rick Castro.