Chris Boot is an editor and photobook publisher based in London, whose titles include two ICP Infinity Award winners – Lodz Ghetto Album (2004) and Things as They Are: Photojournalism in Context Since 1955 (2005). He has worked in photography for 25 years, including as Director of Magnum Photos in London and New York, and Editorial Director at Phaidon Press. He started publishing books independently in 2003, and his most recent titles include The World from My Front Porch by Larry Towell, Parrworld by Martin Parr and Beaufort West by Mikhael Subotzky. He is also the author of Magnum Stories (Phaidon, 2004).
 
 
NYPH: How does your work at Chris Boot, Ltd. influence Gay Men Play, your exhibition for the New York Photo Festival?
 
Chris Boot: What I’ve done in publishing stems from my interest in photography—the phenomenon of photography, photography as a tool for dealing with what’s going on in the world, as well as the work of individual photographers—and it’s the same interests driving my choice of theme for the festival. The work I’ve done for the festival will probably lead to books as well—I’m publishing Stefan Ruiz’s San Francisco Berlin series spring next year, for instance. So it’s all connected. I should say that that the exhibition is very modest. I wanted to do an installation show with 20 photographers, but logistically it wasn’t possible. So, what there is on the ‘gay men play’ theme is an exhibition of Stefan Ruiz’s pictures, an installation by Christopher Clary, and some interesting new work about gay male sexuality shown on digital picture frames. Plus, there’s several public discussions at the St. Anne’s Warehouse. The discussion aspect is really important. I’m thinking of my contribution as more of an event—a provocation for debate—than an exhibition.
 
NYPH: What was your inspiration for Gay Men Play and what do you hope to accomplish with this show?
 
CB: There was this TV show on Channel 4 in Britain a couple of years ago, called “How Gay Sex Changed The World.” The program was pretty interesting, but didn’t fulfill the promise of its title. I started thinking about how gay sex really had changed the world; about how gay men have shaped different possibilities for individuals, and for whole societies. I think the sexual revolution is still going on. For instance, while gay marriages are dominating the newspaper headlines in terms of what’s going on in the gay world, polyamorous gay men are quietly redefining the possibilities of the “family.” I was also thinking about how the war of civilizations post 9/11 seemed less a war between religions, than between those who feel that the way relationships are conducted and the way sexuality is expressed are matters for the state or religion to proscribe, on the one hand, and on the other, those who feel that “anything goes” so long as it’s all consensual. The Taliban and the gay fetish scene seem like two poles of an argument about what kind of society we want. I wanted to do a project that considered the incredible freedom we have in the West by looking at how we are using it.
So I started exploring the ways that gay men are using photography to communicate their sexuality, and to describe sex. It is pretty amazing how photography has developed as a language for communicating about sex. It’s only 15 years since Robert Mapplethorpe died, and it’s hard to overestimate the impact of his work. We’ve moved from a world where one artist broke the rules about what you could show, to one where hundreds of thousands of men, maybe millions, describe themselves and their sexuality through explicit photographs distributed online. Society is changing and photography is at the heart of it. I thought it was worth doing something about gay sex from the perspective of photography. Stefan Ruiz’s photographs are an outsiders’ view—he’s not gay and in a way he views all humans as specimens of curiosity—but I’m not detached from the issues, I’m part of them. I’m thinking of what I am doing is a kind of auto-anthropology, about photography and gay sex and gay identity, focusing on what gay guys are doing with photography. I’m not so interested in the question of who’s an artist and who’s not, or the question, “is this art?” I’m mixing work by galleried artists and porn and gay sex diaries made by guys for online publication, and treating it all as equal.
I think a festival is a perfect place to show photographs which normally only have currency within a particular community context, and to attempt to weigh what’s going on from a broader perspective. I mean, you couldn’t put gay-sex pictures up on a museum wall. What I hope to accomplish is a stimulating festival event that gets people talking. I should add that in no way have I resolved all this. I’m not an academic doing a PhD. I’ve not been studying the field for years. I’m a gay man, working in the field of photography, exploring how gay men are using photography to represent sexual identity. I’m not sure what people will make of it, but I feel what’s happening is both relevant to the evolving story of photography and that there are social issues at play here that should concern and interest a wide audience.
 
NYPH: What do you hope viewers will take away after seeing the show?
 
CB: I hope visitors leave with lots to think about.
 
NYPH: What do you think will be the impact of the New York Photo Festival on the photography world?
 
CB: Ideally the festival works as something between a freethinking ideas-lab and a great party. I think the festival will have long-term value if people use it as a vehicle for airing radical or challenging ideas. That’s what a festival can do really well, I think, and something the photography world won’t be able to ignore.
 
NYPH: This is a chance for you to showcase what you perceive to be the future of photography. What is the significance of this opportunity, and what is the significance of hosting the festival in New York City?
 
CB: I’m not suggesting this is my vision of the future of photography: it is one aspect of new photography, a phenomenon that I think is worth looking at.
The brilliant thing about the festival being in New York is how everything connects there. London is somewhat disconnected by comparison—you do things in London and people don’t notice. Everyone’s slightly in their own world. New York’s a great photography city where everyone notices everything, and everyone has a view. It’s a great place for raising and processing ideas.