Artists' Books

Hustlers - Eve Fowler. by Olivia Wakeham

Hustlers

Eve Fowler

Capricious (2014)

Los Angeles based photographer and artist Eve Fowler emerged in the art world in 1990’s after having graduated from Yale, studying both journalism and photography. Her work addresses the crossroads between sexuality and identity by exploring themes of feminism and queerness. 

A five year long street photography project resulted in her book Hustlers, featuring a collection of photographs taken from 1993 - 1998 in New York City’s West Village and along Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. According to the artist, she sought to capture this “social otherness” as a means of exploring the queer community and establishing her own place within it. The portraits are of young men, introduced by a fellow photographer friend, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, but still strangers to her. Each portrait is presented without title, giving readers no knowledge of the subject’s identity or story. The men are unified in their mysterious and dangerous allure, gazing into the camera unabashedly. Fowler emphasizes the ambiguity of gender, sexuality and identity by leaving all details up to our imagination.

Hustlers is prefaced by a fictional short story, “Prosper Street”, by LGBT poet, author and playwright Kevin Killian. The story follows Jesse, who ponders his observations of a “victim” stereotype in the sex work industry. Fowler’s chose to include only the single fictional writing as context for her otherwise uncategorized and nameless subjects as a way of making the book “more of an artwork” and less about herself.

Hustlers, along another book by Eve Fowler, Anyone Telling Anything is Telling That Thing, are both available for viewing in the artists books collection.