The 1970s was a decade with dysfunctional government and troubled economic times, much like today. And back then, LGBTQ Americans also had far fewer choices for living out, proud and celebratory lives. Basically there were three options for the bold and beautiful: San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York. Gilles Larrain’s stunning photography book, Idols, documents some of the remarkable people who chose the later.
Larrain began photographing the gender-bending nighttime personalities he encountered during the dawn of the gay rights movement at Max’s Kansas City— the legendary Manhattan hangout made famous by Andy Warhol and his misfit “superstars.” Some of the most memorable personalities who traipsed through Larrain’s Soho studio included; David Johansen and The New York Dolls, Harvey Fierstein, The Cockettes, Holly Woodlwawn and Taylor Mead.
Originally published in 1973, Idols returns in a lush new edition ready to inspire and inform a new generation. In then book’s forward, photographer Ryan McGinley writes "I moved to New York City because of people like this. I wanted to be around the art crowd and the weirdos and the freaks...and here was a full-on book of them. I was like, where do I sign up? I wanted in."
Click here to view All That Glitters, Out's slideshow of images from Idols.
All images From Idols by Gilles Larrain, published by powerHouse Books.
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