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Cruising, Photographs by Chad States.
Published by powerHouse Books, 2011.
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Cruising
Reviewed by Adam Bell
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Chad States
Cruising
Photographs by Chad States
powerHouse Books, New York, 2011. Hardbound. 100 pp., 80 color illustrations, 12-1/2x11-3/4".
Move past the clearing, over the hill and enter along a
faint path. Keep moving forward into woods and make a right when you see
the cluster of bushes - meet me there...
Chad State's
Cruising
explores the secret, and not so secret, sites where gay men meet for
anonymous sexual encounters. Mostly hidden in plain view, the parks and
rest areas frequented by these men are on the outskirts of the everyday
world, cloaked by branches and coded signals. Never sensationalistic or
merely erotic, States work intimately draws the viewer into this secret
world through furtive glances and secluded paths - coaxing us (willingly
or unwillingly) into the act of cruising.
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Cruising, by Chad States. Published by powerHouse Books, 2011.
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Photography has always been a voyeuristic art. The camera gives
license to stare, linger and steal the world around us. This is the
reason photography is so closely linked with the erotic. While there is a
lot of work that deals with voyeurism and sex, Kohei Yoshiyuki's The
Park is the best precedent for States' work. Shot at night using
infrared film in public parks in Japan, Yoshiyuki captures couples (both
gay and straight) in sexual embrace, as well as the spectators who
congregate around them, and often try and join in. Whereas Yoshiyuki's
work has a sense of frenzied participation, States' work feels more
restrained - the images of a voyeur rather than a participant.
Photographed during the daytime, branches and foliage obscure male
figures - both clothed and unclothed - hopefully waiting or locked in
excited embrace.
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Cruising, by Chad States. Published by powerHouse Books, 2011.
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The book begins outside the woods, but we are quickly drawn into the
trees. The pictures take us along secret paths where we pass couples in
embrace; single figures waiting and faint paths that diverge in the
forest. Interwoven with the images are pages with subtle white text.
Easy to miss at first, the texts, which are taken from online
information boards about these sites, are crucial to the book. Like a
whisper, the lines lure us into the woods - inviting us to move closer,
stare and participate. Remarkably,
Cruising
is much more than a document about these sites, the people who visit
them or activities that take place there. Through careful editing,
thoughtful design and inventive use of text, we are drawn into this
world and forced to look, stare and linger in the bushes.
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Cruising, by Chad States. Published by powerHouse Books, 2011.
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Accompanying the images is a nice interview with States conducted by Alec Soth (who published an excerpt from this work in
Lonely Boy Magazine #2)
about the project and an essay by Gordon Brent Ingram that investigates
the sociological history of these sites and the culture that surrounds
them. The overall design of the book is very good - from the excellent,
and erotically suggestive, cover to the careful sequencing of images. In
some ways, it might be easy for some to dismiss this book based on it
sexual content, but that would be a mistake.
Cruising is a smart book that will challenge and engage a large audience.
—Adam Bell
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Adam Bell is a photographer and
writer based in Brooklyn, NY. He received his MFA from the School of
Visual Arts, and his work has been exhibited and published
internationally. He is the co-editor and co-author, with Charles H.
Traub and Steve Heller, of The Education of a Photographer
(Allworth Press, 2006). His writing has appeared in Foam Magazine, Lay
Flat and Ahorn Magazine. He is currently on staff and faculty at the
School of Visual Arts' MFA Photography, Video and Related Media
Department.
