Stanley Stellar (born 1945) is an American photographer, living in Manhattan, who has photographed gay men in the

West Village The West Village is a neighborhood in the western section of the larger Greenwich Village neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, New York City. The West Village is bounded by the Hudson River to the west and 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to ...

there since 1976. His work is included in the collection of

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, as well as in the '' Artifacts at the End of a Decade'' portfolio, a copy of which is held in the collection of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York.

Life and work

Stellar was born in New York City, growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s and 1960s. He studied graphic design and photography at

Parsons School of Design The Parsons School of Design is a private art and design college under The New School located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhattan art ...

in New York City then began working as art director at Art Direction, an advertising agency. In 1976, Stellar purchased a professional camera and began photographing the gay scene on the streets of Manhattan's

including

Christopher Street Christopher Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is the continuation of 9th Street west of Sixth Avenue. It is most notable for the Stonewall Inn, which is located on Christopher St ...

, and on the

Christopher Street Pier The Christopher Street Pier is a group of piers in Hudson River Park on the Hudson River waterfront of Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, numbered 42, 45, 46, and 51. "Christopher Street Pier" usually refers specifically to Pier 45 op ...

where men cruised for sex.

Publications

Books of work by Stellar

*''The Beauty of All Men, Photographs 1976–2011''. All Saints, 2011. . *''Into the Light: Photographs of the NYC Gay Pride Day from the 70s Till Today''. Bruno Gmuender, 2018. .

Collections

Stellar's work is held in the following permanent collections: *

, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts: 1 print (as of 5 September 2022) *

, New York: 1 photograph, part of '' Artifacts at the End of a Decade'' (as of 5 September 2022)

Films

*''Stanley Stellar: Here For This Reason'' (2019) – Short Stories (HuffPost and RYOT Films); short film written and directed by Eric Leven

References

External links

*
Artifacts at the End of a Decade ‘Stanley Stellar’ (Dazed Digital Cut)
(4 minute video at Vimeo)
Stellar's profile at Kapp Kapp, New York
21st-century American photographers 20th-century American photographers American LGBTQ photographers Photographers from New York City Parsons School of Design alumni Living people 1945 births {{US-photographer-stub