It is many years ago now since the art world was transfixed by the arrest of a gallery curator for showing the work of Robert Mapplethorpe a year after his death. This marked out the new political right’s move of the culture wars into the art world. A world which prided itself on being avant-garde open and progressive. We were obviously a target. The Perfect Moment was exposed as it had received funding from the USA’s National Endowments for the Arts. There is a well made documentary that covers this called ‘Look at the Pictures’. The issue was that photographs of naked children were in the same exhibition as his Gay S&M photographs. Powerful people who called themselves conservatives could not consider that both could co-exist in the same space. That someone who was sexual could not relate to the innocence of childhood it had to be sexualised. One wonders if they ever connected that children are the result of sexual acts? In 2017 the AGNSW presented The Perfect Medium without incident. Perhaps the Mapplethorpe foundation has now done the hard yards and Mapplethorpe has come out of his difficult adolescence with a feature documentary and a biopic. Perhaps we have seen his work often enough to give him a pass. Yet with the culture wars, the political right have substituted outrage for policy, as it is a hard sell to convince enough voters to give more wealth to those with resources over those without. Instead they have created a narrative of grievance and permission to feel superior to (insert demographic). Separately the photography of children has become more problematic since 1990 as a society has less children and fears that any representation is sexual. We now have law in place in Victoria where by the depiction of flaccid male genitalia can not be shown to under 16 year olds. This results in a rather farcical situation where the Victorian Pride Centre can not feature such. As a society are we saying to under 16s that a penis is so, disturbing, disgusting and detrimental to their well being. that we can not men anatomically correct? Why do we treat our young with such contempt ? They can easily access porn. Another example of the exporting of USA culture of guns and violence and abhorrence to sex. Brian Sergio "I am simply taking pictures of what I experience in my day-to-day life." "I’m drawn to this kind of content. It’s not shocking to me because these are the things I see and live by every day. As for the use of high contrast black and white processing that’s my choice of aesthetic. It also helps because of my colour blindness. I like images that pop out, and colour is getting in the way of my vision." "To be honest, there are no intentions behind it. All I know is it discusses topics such as inflicting pain as a form of religious penitence to repent their sins and making them feel fulfilled by the end of the day. It reflects a topic about bondage and S&M on how they use pain for pleasure. They have the same methods but contradicting ideologies yet somehow, religion and sex meet at the end. No matter how different they seem, they all boil down to achieving human desires." "I see my books as a public invitation to my life’s existence outside of the public’s idea of the norm. My intentions are to show people my world and to understand how Filipino subcultures and traditions are more related as to how they seem." From: https://www.discardedmagazine.com/portfolio/brian-sergio-on-sex-religion-and-the-everyday/ These thoughts about the controversy flooded over me when I saw the work of Brian Sergio. His life in Manila is unlike Australian middle class. He is confronted with the outcomes of a country dominated by the Catholic Church, where women have little control over fertility, no sex education, where confession allows any sin to be wiped clean, where this leads to poverty, political corruption and a strong oligarchy. Brian’s work captures the gritty reality, of poverty and its outcomes; street kids, lovers, sex as entertainment, extremes of religious practice. This body of work is from the much derided ‘male gaze’ but that of a ‘colonized’ photographer, in grainy monochrome that steps on from the Japanese Provoke movement that started in the late 1960s. My first hand experience of living in Manila, informs me of the work’s authenticity. Manila is not politically correct, it does not conform with our sensitivities, his work should be assumed to have a trigger warning, lying on or just under the surface, is unwanted interactions. I remember one newspaper having a section for the court reporter to record some of the more absurd The one that always come to mind is an assistant pastor facing court charged with carnal knowledge of two minors, who were sisters, resulting in both becoming with child. The kickers was the father was the senior pastor of the same church. One wonders at why the assistant pastor thought this was a good idea. I believe instead of looking and legislating unpleasantness, artist have an obligation to ethically make us aware. Arthur Tress "Time makes ruins. The camera helps organize the chaos." "I find that my best photographs are metaphorical or allegorical and the more interpretations and feelings that people can bring to them, the better. I’m always very pleased with that. That’s why my photos are purposely ambiguous." Philip Gefner points out that the struggle for acceptance of photography as a legitimate art form parallels that of homosexuality. This should be no surprise as many holding positions of power were themselves gay but living double lives, even married. Mapplethorpe was ambitious and tactical, he sort out influential gay men to further his career, others did not. The fame an artist achieves is not just related to his/her work, it is also linked to whether the gatekeepers (and which gatekeepers) support them. Artists Stanley Stellar, Peter Hujar, Duane Michaels and Arthur Tress shared the same city, time and culture each took different approaches to photography and art. Tress born in Brooklyn where he grew up with a fascination with war, the local museum and photography. Studying at the Bard College in Fine Arts and choosing the films to be screened on Saturday night. He briefly studied film in Paris. This knowledge brings context to understanding his work, he makes images that seem parts of larger narratives that do not have context or dialogue, so much is open to the viewer. After this he traveled for several years visiting Japan, the Arctic, tibet, where he photographed rituals and this moved his thinking of culture and life. Tress moved away from documentary to a more playful yet theoretical approach. His project of recreating children’s dreams and more surrealistic photographs of men being particularly notable. Like HCB his take on surrealism is one that could almost exist in real world. These constructed images started from different points, from childhood dreams, from sexual fantasies that learnt into various fetishes to shadows. He had a approach that marked him as different and, fresh. In one interview he ponders if many of male nudes have echoes of his adolescent frustrations and longing. The six prints exhibited were made to publicise Men Between Themselves: Images of Male Self Sexuality at Robert Samuels in the early 80s. This body of work dates from 1977 to 1981. They are exquisite darkroom prints of the highest quality on fibre based paper. garrie maguire maguire became interested in photography at school in the early 1980s. He thought it was a quicker way of bringing his thoughts to life then painting, printing or other media. Oddly he learnt how to print in the darkroom while in theological college, he got into the Sydney Technical College course to train as a commercial photographer. From there he continued his obsession with photography. He states that his three main influences as Arnold Newman , Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Mapplethorpe. Newman for large format and the relationship of context to portrait, HBC for composition and the importance of timing, and Mapplethorpe’s need for beauty and giving him permission to combine whom/what he desired as the subjects of his work. Mapplethorpe’s work of the male form of his desire is somewhat problematic, as he is open to accusations of fetishisation of his subjects. Maguire Realising the difference between his sexual desire for average looking, bookish, fairly hairless males and that which the media presents as desirable Maguire decided to broaden the base rather than just present those he was drawn too. From the early 1990s he has produced bodies of work which poses questions to the viewers to attempt disrupt the power of the hegemonic masculinity of our culture. This project continues this practice. Having photographed over 150 males being with a chair in ways that the sitter instigated, he now allows one viewer, the curator, to choose who the other viewers, the gallery visitors, see. This is the first outing of male//chair and is curated by Dr Lisa Anderson. Final Word This show also displays an original poster from the said Mapplethorpe exhibition. What links these three artists more then a curator’s linking them as echoes, is that they like Mapplethorpe, is they have perspectives on masculinity, the Tress’ fantasies delving into the psyche, Sergio’s depiction of the realities of Manila through a heterosexual male gaze and maguire who allows males to present themselves to viewers consideration.