Hal Fischer: The Gay Seventies

At once humorous, conceptually brilliant and visually enthralling, the photography of Hal Fischer is gathered here for the first time

Hal Fischer: The Gay Seventies is the first monograph to feature the complete set of photo-text works that Hal Fischer produced between 1977 and 1979 in San Francisco’s Haight and Castro neighborhoods. In addition to Gay Semiotics, Fischer’s best-known work (its recent facsimile edition now out of print), Hal Fischer: The Gay Seventies includes 18th Near Castro Street x 24, which was published as an artist’s book, Boy-Friends, A Salesman and two other series―Civic Center and Cheap Chic Homo.

Hal Fischer: The Gay Seventies brings together, for the first time in nearly four decades, Fischer’s major photo-text investigations of gay life in late 1970s San Francisco. Unapologetic, humorous, periodically subversive and conceptually driven, Fischer’s photo-text investigations continue to engage and amuse audiences. As the work demonstrates, the late 1970s―after Stonewall and before AIDS―was a magical moment to be young and gay in San Francisco.

Hal Fischer (born 1950) grew up in Highland Park, Illinois. He arrived in San Francisco in 1975 to pursue an MA in photography at San Francisco State University. Through his work as an art reviewer and photographer, he soon became embedded in the Bay Area's artistic and intellectual scene. He continues to live and work in San Francisco.