Peter Berlin: Icon

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It’s a real celebration of queer sexuality,” said Thomas Cawson, creative director of Helmut Lang, of Berlin’s influence. “Celebrating a totally queer language of what streetwear looks like. Everything we do at Helmut, there’s always that undercurrent of referencing those iconic, underground moments. Especially when there is that beautiful queer twist to it.” Culture Trips are deeply immersive 5 to 16 days itineraries, that combine authentic local experiences, exciting activities and 4-5* accommodation to look forward to at the end of each day. Our Rail Trips are our most planet-friendly itineraries that invite you to take the scenic route, relax whilst getting under the skin of a destination. Our Private Trips are fully tailored itineraries, curated by our Travel Experts specifically for you, your friends or your family. Most illuminating and exciting, of course, is the extensive commentary by Berlin himself, still looking remarkably boyish in his early 60s. Tushinski's interviews are complemented perfectly with an astonishing archive of photos and film clips that reveal the full scope of Berlin’s impressive body of work. Increasingly we believe the world needs more meaningful, real-life connections between curious travellers keen to explore the world in a more responsible way. That is why we have intensively curated a collection of premium small-group trips as an invitation to meet and connect with new, like-minded people for once-in-a-lifetime experiences in three categories: Culture Trips, Rail Trips and Private Trips. Our Trips are suitable for both solo travelers, couples and friends who want to explore the world together.

Jonny is extremely personable and generous. In fact, after a Flaming Saddles bartender hopped atop the bar to do some elaborate two-stepping, he didn't think twice about handing the guy a five dollar tip. "He really did amazing stuff up there," Jonny told me, "plus before we were anything, he used to work at Mother Burger [an HK restaurant], and I'd go to him to get fed. He'd give me a free burger because I was hungry." Anyone who hands out food to future stars and can also dance up a gay storm on a bar deserves a shot at President, in my opinion. If he also knows who Peter Berlin is, he can definitely be my next husband. That Man: Peter Berlin had its world premiere at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival and was an official selection of over 65 film festivals, including the Seattle, Chicago, Palm Springs, Rio, and Durban International Film Festivals. In January 2006, the documentary opened theatrically to great acclaim. A Special Edition DVD was released by Water Bearer Films. In addition, That Man: Peter Berlin is available for streaming on Vimeo On Demand and Fandor. In a way he had, as his life’s work became the creation of a corpus of imagery celebrating and indulging his own beauty. Although never his intention, he transformed gay erotica into an art form, creating images that spoke to an audience wider than just the gay world. His constant arousal stimulates a tangible energy – in the process of seducing himself he seduces the viewer. In a paradox of creation, his images do not speak of self-obsession or arrogance, but of confidence and honesty. Berlin designed and sewed all of his clothing without a pattern. He also was a painter and illustrator. He began photographing himself in erotic poses and making skin-tight clothes to wear as he cruised the parks and train stations of Berlin, and the streets of Rome, Paris, New York and San Francisco. Many of his designs are now seen in the fashion works of such international designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier. [ citation needed] Filmmaking and celebrity [ edit ] Anderson, James: "Peter Berlin Sixty-Something German Artist From San Francisco Spent His Entire Life Getting Laid", BUTT Magazine, Summer, 2004I told Sherie about the Lombard/Hawn comparisons and she grinningly replied, "My hairdresser will love that! And I love that no one under 50 will know who Carole Lombard is. 'Which talk show host is that?'" Hey, I will gladly educate them one by one, about Carole, Peter Berlin, Stonewall, and my childhood. Another '70s icon, plus-sized drag star Divine, gets her own homage in a show at the Fringe Festival (an annual event for people who must really love theater, because there's never enough air conditioning, lol). Written by E. Dale Smith from a concept by Braden Chapman (a.k.a. drag star Mimi Imfurst), Divine/Interventiontakes us to the end of Divine's life in 1988, as the John Waters cult star is about to do a guest role as a man on Married With Children, a career twist that tragically wasn't meant to be. After a period of cruising bars, streets and house parties, Berlin comes to the realization that “normal sex”—meaning sex in a bedroom with one partner—barely interests him. Throughout the course of the film he discovers the key elements he needs to get turned on: leather, public spaces, role-play, and exhibitionism. The film concludes with him journaling as his voiceover explains, “By now, normal sex seems so boring to me. I like much more to get into perverse trips . . . but as far as normal sex is concerned, one of the best experiences I have ever had was last week, when these two boys approached me at the gym. They asked me to come with them, because they enjoyed nothing more then having sex on a couch with spotlights aimed at them and an audience watching.” For Berlin’s rapidly advancing taste, “normal” has come to mean engaging with multiple partners for spectators. By the film’s end, he is finished with traditional sexuality. If Narcissus—the famous character from Greek mythology—had been mentored by Peter Berlin, his story might not have ended in tragedy. After falling in love with his own reflection and then realizing that it actually wasn’t another person, Narcissus was so devastated by the prospect of never being able to experience true romantic love that he took his own life. But had he come of age in the early ’70s, when the tools of photographic reproduction were available to the general public, Peter Berlin’s example would have taught him that focusing entirely on your own image can be quite a satisfying substitute for traditional romantic love. Of course, even then, the relationship between sex and the camera was far from new. Since its inception, the camera had been used to document the beauty and wonderment of the naked human form. What was new about Peter’s approach was that it was an independent enterprise. He wasn’t a muse for another artist or a model for a pornographer; nor was he a sex symbol produced by a film studio, like Garbo, Brando, or Monroe. He didn’t wait for an adoring and powerful benefactor to hand him the capitalist machinery of star production. As an out gay man, such tools were only available to his counterparts who had agreed to remain closeted for the purpose of becoming cultural icons. Berlin, on the other hand, valued himself and his sexuality with such militant pride that he took his identity into his own hands and became his own muse. “I wanted to turn myself into the type of man I wished I would see on the streets,” he has said as a way of explaining his style.

I stopped traveling completely,” he said, adding that he “dreaded” the trip prior to arrival. “I don’t have friends [here] anymore who are alive.” Almost 50 years after his uncompromising films and daring self-portraits made him a defining gay sex symbol of the ’70s, Peter Berlin can’t quite fathom why anyone would still be interested in his work. Yet he’s also bothered that the rest of the world hasn’t remade itself in his image—and that’s just one of the many contradictions that make Berlin so fascinating. He’s an introvert known for his exhibitionism; a gifted photographer whose only subject is himself; a porn star who doesn’t much care for sex; and a man who responded to the artifices that so many gay men constructed to hide their true selves by creating an even more exaggerated sexual and stylistic persona. Peter Berlin was the subject of several Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, four drawings by Tom of Finland, and at least one portrait by Andy Warhol, attesting to his worldwide celebrity. Aside from his role in the sexual revolution helping make gay men and gay sexuality more visible to the public at large, Berlin was responsible for the definition of many gay archetypes which persist today, while contributing to the achievement of artistic legitimacy for erotic gay subject matter, in general.

When you're living in that era, you take it as normal and nothing special. When I was part of Studio 54, everyone was running there. There were big lines outside, and [co-owner] Steve Rubell was standing on some kind of pedestal to look over the adoring people. He said, "Peter you don't have to be in line." I was ushered in.

It just happened. My life happened, it was not me having a vision, when I started to photograph myself that’s how it started. A friend said, ‘Oh Peter maybe you should just show it’ and he had a gallery in Berlin and he put it on the wall and that’s where it started to be public. And then of course I made two films because I met this guy in San Francisco and he had a camera, and he said you know let’s make a porno. Because that’s the only thing I was so obsessed with: sex.” Although he retreated from the limelight in the 1980s, he continues to make videos of himself and lives quietly in San Francisco, where he is still frequently recognized on the streets. Since you are here, we would like to share our vision for the future of travel - and the direction Culture Trip is moving in.

Peter Berlin was born December 28, 1942, in German-occupied Łódź, Poland, but he grew up in an aristocratic family in Berlin, Germany. He is the second of the three children. [2] [3] The extended family included the Russian American 1920s and 1930s fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene. He spoke about being an icon to so many in the gay community, saying it surprised him to hear how much of an influence he’s had on men’s lives. Every morning, I wake up and say to myself, "Do something." I'm not doing a thing, actually, for decades. I'm very much using my head and I'm entertained by my own brain. I'm not very happy with my life because I feel I'm wasting my time, but I'm not so unhappy that I do anything about it. Life is actually very simple. We lost that compass of decency, normality, and beauty. We are all running after money and fame. I can't take it seriously. That's why I haven't done anything in years. But I don't feel good about it. I never had sex in any of those places. I went for being seen and seen. I'm so shy that you would never have seen me having sex. Sex was for me a very intimate, private thing. Berlin’s photographic project is arguably closer to performance art, in that the act of cruising in his elaborate getups was the point of his ambitious pursuits. The expertly composed and printed photographs, gorgeous art objects in and of themselves, are ultimately records of his sexually pointed happenings.