John Simone is a Canadian photographer who moved to New York after graduating university in Toronto to photograph and document the bustling and secretive nightlife of the underground gay and drag scene that would take place in the back streets of Brooklyn and Harlem. The so-called ‘Club Kids’ of New York were infamous for their raucous parties, extravagant costumes and freedom of art and expression. In typical gay fashion it took place at night and in various gay clubs, underground and hidden away from the general public who were generally unaware during this conservative and oppressive time. The hotspots were bustling and many celebrities had been photographed at these backstreet parties, dressed lavishly and simply having fun.  What has drawn me to John’s work is his documentation of this Drag Ball’s, which there is little documentation. Furthermore, instead of looking afraid and weak like many truly were, facing bombings, homophobic violence, poverty and the deadly AIDS crisis, within the stills there is a light of passion and creativity, smiles, laughter and fun, because in that moment they weren’t afraid and the night was young and free. It is beautiful to see unapologetic expression. 

As discussed in the ‘Intersectionality’ lecture, we at birth are programmed into a way of behaving and acting that our parents and influencers around us see fitting for our biological sex, there is no reason why a baby would choose pink over blue due to its gender. At a young age we are coerced into these unconscious decisions that fit our biological sex, the clothing we wear, the words we speak, the way we speak, how we walk, carry ourselves, act and express ourselves. Classically women were seen as weak and emotional, which today still prevents women from achieving certain goals due to a patriarchal leaning and men have always been pictured as burly, macho, in-control and emotionless, and still today the largest sufferers of mental health issues are male due to the expectation to handle their problems and to not cry. Gender constructs have been holding many of us back, they are out-dated and it’s time for them to go, I have suffered from their effect from a young age, I was aware very young that they made no sense, and there was nothing wrong with me liking purple and dolls, yet I felt ashamed because I felt wrong. With age I came to realise that I have nothing to be ashamed for. 

John Simone’s work and the infamous Club Kids were frontrunners of this gender battle, they took gender binds and heteronormative constructs of the mainstream hierarchy and blended them to warp and fit their desires with drag and expression. The ‘Paris is Burning’ balls had no rules and no regulations; everything was welcome and the weirder the better. Makeup and fashion were tools of expression and allowed the Club kids to inspire each other and embrace what is truly the natural bind of gender, because there isn’t unless we say there is. This is what raised fear and hatred in the conservative surroundings, the community was breaking religious and social rules, the ‘polite society attitude’ feared the change of their world and brushed them under the rug or became aggressive towards them, in fear of the ‘expression’ spreading. After all, it was, the freedom and creativity began to grow more and more, and in the mid 90’s drag even became so popular it became mainstream and so did celebrated Super Model, RuPaul. 

Within this image  ( left image )we have claimed ‘King of the Club Kids’, Alig Morrissey and James St James, posing against each other in the late underground scene. Here both guys are blurring heteronormative and gender ideals, posing suggestively and strong against each other, with chins up and faces tilted, there is strength and dominance in the image, not weakness of a minority. They have proven to find strength in their differences from the gender normative rather than weakness. Wearing skimpy outfits revealing their legs. These outfits are perceived typically female in society, alongside the children’s lunch box modelled as a handbag. This proposes a certain childish and playful aspect to the design, both free of worry like a child and also another conventional construct of both age and gender with the ‘little girls’ lunch box. Both Queens have quirky earrings and makeup. Perhaps one of the biggest social constructs was the use of makeup, a simple blend of powders and dyes that had become exclusively female and the male usage was considered ridiculous, crazy, sick and often deemed they were homosexual. Here the Club Kids are fluttering their luscious lashes and sumptuous lipstick unapologetically like a classic Hollywood star. And note that celebrities have always been ‘poster child’s and advertisements of the hetero-normative life, by presenting straight celebrity couples, fashion that expresses their femininity or masculinity and famous children and families. 

My favourite aspect is the jock strap on Alig, because like the makeup and the clothing has described, gender expression isn’t one sided and by wearing the jock strap and letting himself ‘bulge’ rather than ‘tuck’ he is giving a masculine aspect to the look, perfectly blending and playing with the gender constructs. I know that as a child I fought so hard for my conventionally feminine attributes I have lost touch with my masculine, and I believe that a little of both is the prefect balance. 

The disappearance of LGBT History.

In contradiction we can also analyse the photography and documentation of John Simone’s work from a historical point of view. By understanding the study of historiography and how History is written we can understand the disappearance of such integral moments in history that have been hidden from the public eye. 

The Rocking 80’s and Disco 90’s were full of fashion trends, rock and pop stars which dominated world culture and the heteronoramativity society, when questioned about the 80’s many remember the Chernobyl Nuclear Meltdown, The Academy Award Winning film, ‘Platoon’, John Lennon’s murder, the release of ‘9 to 5’ staring Dolly Parton, Charles and Diana have a royal wedding, The F­alklands War, Calvin Klein Underwear advertisements, ET, The MTV awards begin, Windows computers, the internet begins, the Simpsons debut, Michael Jackson releases Thriller etc.  But not many remember or even knew about the rife and thriving Cultural Revolution of the underground LGBTQ scene.

Unfortunately, the only emergence was typically a negative correlation, the ‘World AIDS’ day, which has helped save many lives globally initially created an accidental social stigma around the Queer communities. That they were promiscuous, disease ridden and infectious, “AIDS”, became a hateful and hurtful term of abuse against the community suffering first hand the devastation of the crisis.  In history the predominant documentation is the weakness and fragility of this marginalised underground communities who suffered by the hands of the conservative society and were forced underground. Ultimately, this is largely because the people who were writing the history did not understand the importance of the expression or they had never even seen or heard of these lavish parties and creative freedom. They simply did not care or agree with the culture. Their parents and society taught them that it was wrong and a threat so the history was not documented. Throughout history in conservative times the matter of gender and sexuality is completely forgotten or condoned by the few who could write and read, in the dark ages only men of the church could read and write, the concept of homosexuality was an abominable one and that which was not reported. Forgotten to prevent a ‘further spread’. 

While as I have previously mentioned in my analysis that John’s work is so captivating due to his positive and thriving documentations of the LGBT New York Night Life scene. It is important to note the groundbreaking steps in fashion, art and design forged within the community that is rarely accredited by the general fashion. Drag has influenced makeup, fashion, hair, acting, comedy; beauty even language yet is hardly credited. Kim Kardashians makeup artist adapted contouring from Drag Queens, who use it to help feminise and dramatize they structural features and to bring shape and colour to their face aft their whistles under the bright stage lights.

John’s photography is not only a torch of expression and freedom but also historical evidence and narrative of the creation and growth of trends and wild fashions that have flowed into our mainstream, here we see the front runner of a movement that has shaped the lives of LGBT people around the world. Unlike Racial and Feminist Political figures that are celebrated world over for their pioneering efforts, there are simply no such huge icons for the LGBT community, as no one knew it was even happening. RuPaul is a super star and some might say she is a pioneer but not to the same extent of decoration as racial and feminist icons. So it is important that these images emerge and especially people, who identify as LGBT, learn where our freedom and our creative liberty, which much of us take for granted, has come from. Who helped fight our battle.

(I do not own any of these images, they are used only for a temporary educational use)

The late Tom Of Finland is one of the most infamous gay artists and illustrators, his homoerotic fetish art was some of the first of its kind, emerging during a very conservative and repressive era were such acts were punishable. His skill with pencil and graphite is simply beautiful and his depictions are raw, indulgent and expressive. Tom’s work has long since been a favourite of mine for many reasons, the physical beauty of the sketches and the shading (his appreciation of light and structure is exquisite), the exaggeration of the male physique and the rebellion within his work to persevere in such repressive time. His work has inspired many gay men to explore who they are and their sexualities both in secret and in mainstream media throughout the last 80 so years. His designs have shed light on fetish culture and brought BDSM influence to fashion. 

Throughout Tom’s illustrations there are 5 main Patterns or ‘Paradigms’ which have carried through each sketch and are some of the corner stones of his work.

Erotica and exploration for Gay Men.

Tom’s work is exclusively Homoerotic, during the early 20^thcentury towards the 80’s and early 90’s, Homophobia was rife and mainstream. Finland especially was predominantly Christian like the majority of Europe, and religion played a larger part in their lives. Many men like Tom were simply not allowed to be their true selves and had dark underground lives were they would for fill their true desires. Tom’s fetish art reveals this underground and thriving scene of gay fetishizes and normalises it, though the acts are fairly extreme or voyeuristic they are embedded in everyday, casual scenarios. Though until recently the procession of his work was not easy, it had helped many gay men like himself explore who they are and their sexual fetishes in a society which simply did not care or know anything other than ‘heteroerotic’. And with time his work became more celebrated and mainstream.

Happiness of gay men

Because of the hardship of being LGBTQ+ in the 20^thcentury, much of Queer art has revealed the hard and painful lives of the individuals, an exposé into the brutality and danger they were in. Were as what is particularly charming about Toms work is the unapologetic nature of the characters, the men in his tableaus are engaging in various sexual acts without shame or fear, having sex in public or cruising in public, the characters are happy in the stills. Which brings an air of freedom and beauty to the work; it was a sexual fantasy of these men to be able to explore their sexual desires without (religious and social) shame or fear of persecution.

Military fashion and BDSM sub culture

In the 1970’s onwards, Tom’s works gained rapid notability, the times were changing and modern society, led by Art, was become more accepting, Tom’s Military and uniform fetish carried consistently in his drawings, predominantly the Leatherman and BDSM fetish became more main stream during the coming decades. Fashion used aspects of BDSM to shock and thrill the audience and soon leather jackets and trousers became the rage. Robert Mapplethorpe, the homoerotic American photographer was a big fan of his work and they had cooperated on numerous occasions due to their fascination with the masculine physique and male sexual prowess. Mapplethorpe was drawn to the BDSM aspect of Toms work and we can see this in some of Mapplethorpe’s images. 

However, the origin of these fetishes arose in Tom from young age, during his childhood in Finland, every male had to conscript to the army, here, being surrounded by lots of other young men, Tom’s fetishism of uniform, particularly military came into play. Military and police uniform have always been a sense of taboo, were it has been fantasized to engage in sexual acts with someone who is of a higher power and has authority, in a certain submissive and dominant demeanour, this concept of seducing or being seduced by someone who in real life has the power to arrest them became a fetish. One we see commonly today, such as stripes dressed in police uniforms. With many fetishes they derive from fear, in LGBT+, a fear of authority and punishment was probably the cause.  Whilst BDSM was popular in the underground scene and was incredibly taboo.

Nature and Voyeurism

Growing up in rural Finland, I guess it’s inevitable that nature and ‘the great outdoors’ becomes a predominant background to ones work. Allowing the natural surrounding to exhibit a organic aspect to a design. Such as animals do, humans are engaging in natural carnal-pleasures amongst the greenery of nature. In many scenes Tom’s character, ‘Kake’, is seen in wooded areas scouting men and then having sex in amongst nature, this carnal and primal depiction is an essence of freedom once again, to engage in sex without fear or shame for what people may be seeing around you. It is both secretive  and voyeuristic, allowing onlookers to watch or join in this exclusive meet up. This is an accurate description of cruising, were men would wait around to pick up other men or simply watch others get down. Even looking at his work there is a strong sense of voyeurism within the viewer following these situations. 

Fascination of traditional masculinity

Secondary Sex characteristics are just as prominent as the aroused primary sex characteristics; Tom has taken the gay male, homoerotic fantasy on steroids and exaggerates the male physique to an imaginative and desirable depiction of strong, burly guys with gigantic penises. Much like the exaggeration of the female form, this is the exaggeration of the male form for gay men’s sexual desires. Masculinity within the gay community has for years been fetishised and worshipped, due to a certain dominance, ability to ‘blend in’ (during more conservative times especially) and having more traditionally masculine and conventionally attractive features and character traits. Unfortunately this has led to neglect and prejudice against the feminine gay males over the century but is luckily turning around with the popularity of drag queens and all t

Chad Sell

Chad Sell is an American illustrator and designer who has been largely inspired by the recent infamy of RuPauls Drag Race. Chad uses both digital and analog drawing to celebrate the iconic and creative looks served through each season. What strikes me in his work is the use of colour and the satisfying composition. Although, perhaps for me the most intriguing factor of his work is the comprehensive variety of stylings that Chad uses in both his D+A drawings, authentically capturing the essence of the character portrayed in the costume. Notably he is the most popular ‘Drag Race fan artist’ on Instagram.

Loish

Lois Van Baarle is a digital sensation and has risen to fame as the ‘Queen of digital’, many Digital artists today have been inspired or even began digital painting because of her work. Lois’ use of colour in her female portraits are what captures the eye, using bright and imaginative colours that cast a spell of magic and emotion in the images, the soft blends and exquisite appreciation of light is meticulous in each piece of work.

Tom Of Finland

Tom Of Finland is a ‘classic gay icon’, spending his life in Finland in the conservative 20th Century, Tom’s drawings are not only beautifully sketched and shaded with charcoal, but revolutionary for the LGBT Community. His drawings became Homoerotic, pornographic novels with highly explicit, exaggerated and fantasied male characters dressed in various uniforms engaging in casual sexual encounters. His work had helped many see their true desires and portrayed these men as happy and free during a repressive and persecuted time.

John Simone

Canadian Photographer and graphic designer, John Simone is a lesser known photographer of the raucous and wild 80’s and early 90’s underground nightlife scene in New York. These images portrayed a highly persecuted and marginalised queer community coming together and celebrating being alive and the colour in expression, John documented the ‘KLUB KID’ fashions and extravagant costumes of the drag queens and ‘Klub Kids’ and the celebrities that frequented. During this time in Queer history, there was a large amount of homophobic attacks and general aggression as well as the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Laura Callaghan

Irish illustrator living and working in London, Laura Callaghan, is a highly popular young artist who recently graduated from university and took to instagram to build her notability. Laura’s work depicts the life and fashions of 21’st century millennial women, her characters celebrate feminism, body positivity, racial inclusion, LGBT rights, religious inclusion and awareness of disabilities. Her diverse and modern characters mirror a utopian 21st century London and are placed within boho-chic, patterned interiors. The interiors are gorgeously painted (both analog and digitally) with many Ironic miscellaneous items which portrays a story within the tableau. Colouring wise her use of graphic and bold harmonic colours is very visually attractive.

Malika Favre

French artists Malika Favre plays beautifully with minimal graphic design in her enticing and vivid editorial work. Malika uses bold, highly contrasting block colours in a minimal and shapely design using Illustrator. Her simplistic and stripped use of light and form to perfectly illustrate a message. Malika’s editorials have inspired me for many years, to this day I am trying to learn this complicated yet effective styling.

Julia Razumova

Otherwise known as ‘Bluesssatan’ on instagram, I believe is a Russian digital artist who uses Procreate and Wacom Mobile Studio Pro for her semi realistic, colourful and emotional portraits. What catches my eye is the expressive use of neon colours within the realistic skin tones and textures, her appreciation of highlights and even an ability to draw iridescence. Julia’s work is one of my most common references for colouring and design, her work in particular influenced me to remove lines within my digital work and work in bright unnatural colours.

Hayden Williams

British Fashion Illustrator, Hayden Williams, is a modern leading fashion illustrator who gained attention for his interpretations of well loved Disney Characters into high fashion models. The couture runway looks are drawn analog with vibrant colour, shines and glowing soft skin, the structured doll-like exaggerated features capture dramatic attention. His work inspired my own love for fashion illustration and the love of clothing design. Hayden has worked with the fashion bible itself, Vogue, on several covers for both British and American Vogue.

James Gilleard

James Gilleard is a an impressive digital designer, fascinated by Japan and structural design. Gilleard can form futuristic landscapes from blocks and shapes and extravagant colouring. the landscapes Are enticing and unusually familiar, with a retro, speckled filter and texture to his work which urges an unusual nostalgia.

@Silverjow (Joe)

My most recent inspiration has raised from homoerotic/Bara artist, @silverjow (on instagram), his work has a beautiful and exaggerated appreciation of the male form accompanied by subtle, natural skin tones which brings an ironic realism to the unrealistic body form.

Phase 5 (2012-)

Distorted Reality

Phase five is truly the creation of a digital profile, with an increased importance of an Internet and social media presence, our  profile is becoming just as integral as our physical. Our digital profile has become a way for us to monitor our health, our weight and our needs. We have created platforms like instagram that are thriving of the manipulation of cookies and lack of privacy for marketing purposes and exploiting the narcissistic profiles we create to tweak and perfect so that we feel we have control of what others think and reflect us. Our Profile is our intended external view of our lives. Nostalgia has grown from the previous 4 stages where recent 90’s technology and fashion has recently celebrated as ‘retro’. Our increased reliance and obsession of our electrical devices have become a form of social wellbeing where we are sacrificing our physical interactions of the connections that have become rife from stage four (ubiquitous connections).  The world of dating apps was also born and the casual sex and porn industry have flourished with the use of hand held devices.

The digital age has become an ever-changing sensory overload with many struggling to keep up, damaging our physical, mental and sexual health. Even more so than the previous phases the impacts of this era are even more uncharted.

Wood Block Printing:

An ancient source of printing illustration that can be traced back to 3rd Century China, a timeless process which involved carving into wood blocks, coating in ink and pressing on paper. This form is the seed to most modern printing processes and has crated some beautiful works throughout the centuries including the infamous ‘Wave of Kanagawa’ print by Hokusai in 1833. On a side Note, a collection of Hokusai’s print are available to see at the Bristol Museum.

Yohan Gutenburg:

Yohan Gutenburg is known as the forefather of print as his inventions where imperative for the development of print and mass production. In the 1400’s, Yohan designed and constructed a maneuverable printing system with removable plates allowing a mass production of printing blocks and printing press.

Thomas Bewick:

Thomas Bewirk was born in 1753 in Northumberland, he is known for his intricate and meticulous wood block carving prints that have inspired artists for generations and helped to progress the process and development of printing.

James Gillray:

James Gillray is an infamous British caricaturist and print maker who lived and worked through the late 18th Century. During this time Gillray drew a series of political caricatures for national newspapers and early magazines that depicted unflattering descriptions of political world powers such as his world renowned print of Napoleon and Pitt carving up the globe. His work is daring (during his time) and lead the use of illustration to express political impressions to the public.

Alphonse Mucca:

Czech arist, Alphonse Mucca, spent the majority of his life working between Paris, Vienna and Chicago, producing gorgeous floral and feminine art neveau portraits of women surrounded by elegant backgrounds and matching floral arrangements. His work celebrated Femininity in the industrial and ‘masculine’ world at the time. Much used his illustrations as advertisement for furniture, makeup, soap and all sorts of products. His designs where highly commissioned and popular all over Europe. He pioneered the use of illustration for commercial advertisement.

Krazy Kat:

Krazy Kat, Illustrated and written by George Herriman, is perhaps the earliest comic to have great success and to be featured as a Sunday strip in the New York Times. The strip ran from 1913 to 1944, a huge 31 years, and had a massive influence to future comic artists and designers. The Navajo inspired strip was set in New Mexico and features a cat and gender fluid mouse. The strip was a lighthearted gag real which would help entice the readers to read the paper during a heavy and tense time in world history.

AM Cassandre:

Ukrainian Born, French painter, poster artists and type face designer, AM Cassandre is known as an important stepping stone in the use of typography and design within commercial posters, he was one of the first designers to create posters big enough for motor vehicles to read. He also worked with many fashion houses for prints and logos, the most famous being the design of the Yves Saint Laurent logo.

Jessie Wilcox Smith:

Jessie is considered one of ‘Americas great illustrators’, and is known as ‘one of the greatest pure illustrators’, she drew with dark thick lines and has contributed to a variety of books and magazines over the late 19th and early 20th century. Not only did she build strong relationships between magazines and illustrators but also promoted the work of female illustrators in a patriarchal time.

Walt Disney:

The Late Walt Disney has created a lifetime legacy for his pioneering work with animation. Over his lifetime he has transformed various stories and fairytales into some of the highest grossing children films in history, then using the popularity to build theme parks and a retail empire. The films of Walt Disney have touched hearts around they world and have largely inspired 2 generations of illustrators and animators.

Loish:

Dutch artist, Lois Van Baarle is a contemporary digital artist who has become one of the most famous and influential digital (drawing tablet) illustrators, her use of unconventional bright, neon and even pastel colours, masterful appreciation of light and composition has gained a large audience. Loish is the Illustrator who inspired me and many other current and new digital artists to buy drawing tablets sue to her unique, colourful and satisfying designs.

During my readings and critical thinking lectures I have identified some terminology I did not understand, both the meaning and the relation to the practise of illutsrtion 

How many did you know?

Lacunae:  Lacunae is the plural of the word Lacuna, the word describes a gap or lack of something, whether anatomical, physical or spiritual. EXAMPLE “Kelly had found a lacunae of hair from where she fell in the club last night and fought ‘Tasha with the nose ring'”. OR “There is a large lacuna between the Asian an American continents”.

Epitaph: An epitaph is a phrase or sentence used to describe the life and memory of someone who has passed away. Often found on Tomb Stones and used in Eulogies. It can also mean something to which an individual will be profoundly remembered by. In terms of Illustration, we might say, “Tom of Finland’s homoerotic graphite and pencil sketches will forever be an epitaph to his life work”.

Lamented:  To lament is to express a grief or sadness or regret towards something, alternatively it can be used to show grief of a recent passing. EXAMPLE “I sat there and lamented that I had overspent on baubles shaped like aubergine emoji’s”.

Intelligentsia: A group of influential highly educated intellectuals who are seen to provide knowledge, culture and political understanding. 

Ontology: The study of Metaphysics and theoretically how the world works.

Metaphysics: This is a study of Philosophy that investigates the ‘first principles of things’, with profound and contradictory concepts such as ‘being, knowing, time, space, purpose, identity, reasoning…’. It is the study between the reality of life, ‘mind and matter’ and ‘possibility to and actuality’.

Imperative: Something of the upmost importance or a vital and crucial authoritative command. EXAMPLE “My black choker was the imperative piece to finish of the outfit and make the boys lust”.

Precariousness: The state of insatiability and uncertainty where something is dependent on chance and favour rather than actual certainty. EXAMPLE “My 6 inch crystallised platform heels stood precariously while I ‘slut-dropped’ on the platform in OMG”.

Historiography: Derived from the word ‘History’, historiography is the study of how history is written and how it is interpreted and further accepted as ‘historical fact’. The process of deciding what is the ‘past and what is a historical fact’. In terms of Illustration, Historiography is used to highlight key point, ideas and thoughts among millions of others that have been specifically significant to shaping illustration today. 

Intemporal: Another word to describe timelessness and immortality, we may describe the work of Andy Warhol, though controversially appreciated, in temporal. Something not temporary. In Illustration it describes a times piece of work which will not be forgotten due to its importance or dramatic effect that still to current day can be appreciated. 

Shirking: The action of neglecting and purposely avoiding a known responsibility. EXAMPLE “The lady shirked off her Human Resources testimonial for pouring chilli powder in the office toilet role”.

Altruism: A selflessness towards others that puts forwards their own needs before your own, caring and highly considerate of others. EXAMPLE “Micheal believed he had shown valiant altruism when he drove his bus at 70mph through the high street, getting his customers to their destination earlier”.

Welcome to my mini blog, this is where I will be documenting, tasks and thoughts of mine through my time bat University. Hope you enjoy!