Artist Spotlight: Hal Fischer

Whilst at the ‘Masculinities’ Exhibition at the Barbican (Featured in early 2020) I came across the work of Hal Fischer, or more specifically the collection of work titled ‘Gay Semiotics’. The collection features a set of photographs taken by Fischer in the Castro and Haight-Ashbury districts of San Francisco (known for being popular with the gay community). The photographs recall the ‘‘ ‘Signalling Devices’ and visual iconography’’ used by many at the time in the Gay Community. The ‘Castro Clones’ as they became nicknamed duplicated the look and aesthetics of different stereotypes, hence the reference to clones. Fischer has supplied a satirical commentary with the photos, through the addition of labels  to highlight the main aspects of each ‘look’, for what is duplicated and adopted by the clones. In an interview with ‘Another Man Magazine he told the interviewer that his work as a product of the trends of the time, and wouldn’t work in todays fast moving world.
Fischer’s work explores the representation of the Gay Community in San Francisco through exploring  the tropes and the   that people followed, partially as a way of symbolising their preferences and personality, but also by conforming to a set of rules and archetypes within that community. Whilst it is true, as Fischer says the same logic and set of rules is no longer able to apply in todays world, it is also true that the same sentiment and practice of following archetypes has continued, but it has adapted to suite a modern world, and more importantly an online world. With the rise of social media. The visibility of the LGBT community as whole has increased, leading to more and more acceptance from the world. However, with this increased visibility and openness the ‘rules’ for how one operates in the gay community has changed, particularly with how a person represents themselves online. In the seventies San Francisco the sexual preference or position of an individual was represented in articles of clothing, such as the colour of a Handkerchief and which pocket it is in, nowadays the that information is shown through the composition of a selfie, or the position of the person taking the selfie.

 (this is an extract from my essay)

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