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Last week, Andrea Maurio at the Village Voice asked me to photograph the five surviving members of the Silence = Death Collective for this years ‘Pride’ issue.
For the first time in years, the five guys who created a poster consisting of a pink triangle set against a black background with the words “Silence = Death” below it, would be together at the same time for a 30 year commemorative gathering at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Because of the event, we weren’t going to have a lot of time to shoot, but I still had to come away with a group shot and individual portraits of each guy. And because of all the people attending the event, shooting a group photo inside the gallery would be impossible. We decided to use the outside of the building…
The Silence = Death Collective: L-R, Avram Finkelstein, Charles Kreloff, Jorge Socarras, Brian Howard & Christopher Lione
After a very quick five minutes on the sidewalk, we moved back inside to a small office we commandeered as our portrait studio for the individual photos…
The Village Voice Pride Issue is out today and you can read the story How Six NYC Activists Changed History With “Silence = Death”
Special thanks to Avram, Charles, Jorge, Brian & Christopher for allowing me the opportunity to photograph them, and to Andrea Maurio and Ashley Smestad Velez for the great assignment.
Damn Ugly Photography 
I really like the look of the deep parabolic table topped like that with the soft falloff under the chin. It’s not quite as aggressively lit as your normal posts which makes sense for this shoot. Did you use a ring fill on these?
No fill at all…just that big, soft light. But the room was frightfully small and I’m sure there was a certain amount of bounce from the white walls. BT
Awesome
Awesome. Such gorgeous faces, I want to get to now them. Love this.
Without doubt and without fear of contradiction these images are absolutely beautiful. I literally cannot praise them and you enough. Apologies for gushing sentiments but they are genuine.