From Penny Spiliotopoulos’ article for V Magazine:

The seedy and the salacious are brought to life in photographer Amos Badertscher’s (1936–2023) new book Images and Stories documenting the spectacle of Baltimore’s queer underground. Spanning the pre-Stonewall era to the throes of the AIDS epidemic, thousands of photographs divulge a subterranean universe of fervent ecstasy reckoning with an increasingly perilous force. Drag queens, sex workers, club kids, and hustlers emerge as primary subjects, the intimacies of their private life unraveling in front of an unflinching lens, and as Badertscher’s uncensored narrative on LGBTQ+ history unfolds, the psyche and spirit of a queer population endures lust, loss, and every lascivious lark in between.

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Browse all of Amos Badertscher’s work at CLAMP