The Piers (three men on a dock)
In the ’70s and ’80s, the piers became a popular spot for gay men to sunbathe naked beneath huge murals by artists like Gustav “Tava” Von Will. As writer David Cohen noted in a review of. In the late s and early s, men disenfranchised and terrorized by their country built sexual and social playgrounds in the abandoned piers along the West Side of Manhattan. It was a dangerous world, where floors could collapse below you and assignations could turn to predations—but then, America in general was a dangerous world for queer people. 
Down and Out on the West Side Piers
overview For over a century, the Greenwich Village waterfront along the Hudson River, including the Christopher Street Pier at West 10th and West Streets, has been a destination for the LGBT community that has evolved from a place for cruising and sex for gay men to an important safe haven for a marginalized queer community – mostly queer homeless youth of color. Between 19the. For the next 15 years, while the city wrung its hands over the cost of rehabilitating or demolishing the road, the debris from the accident acted as a sort of barrier, cutting off the rest Manhattan from a collection of abandoned industrial warehouses on the West Side Piers. The isolation and vastness of the warehouses were popular with experimental artists like Gordon Matta-Clark, as well as gay men who frequently cruised the piers.
How Alvin Baltrop Captured The Queer History of NYC's West
In the s, amid the shipping industry's decline, the empty piers became a site for cruising and creativity for gay men in particular. With a sensibility to architecture, Baltrop portrayed his subjects with a heightened sense of drama, instilling his scenes with humanity. Baltrop began his career as a teenager shooting on the streets of New York.
The Piers — Google Arts & Culture
After the decline of the shipping industry in New York City, the once thriving piers stood empty in ruin. Neglected and abandoned, the piers found new life as the scene of artistic and sexual inhibition for New York's gay men. For over a century, the Greenwich Village waterfront along the Hudson River, including the Christopher Street Pier at West 10th and West Streets, has been a destination for the LGBT community that has evolved from a place for cruising and sex for gay men to an important safe haven for a marginalized queer community — mostly queer homeless youth of color. David Wojnarowicz, age 25, at Pier 46, 
Greenwich Village Waterfront
In , the Chelsea Piers was a series of decaying waterfront structures beginning at the end of Christopher Street across the West Side Highway and extending through Chelsea. Throughout the ’s, the Piers were a hotspot for gay men to enjoy the sunshine, cruise each other or congregate with community in public. Privacy Policy. Please visit My Account to verify and manage your account.
Decay and Desire
Baltrop’s photographs capture and preserve the beauty and secrecy of queer experiences that took refuge within the decaying architectural milieu of Manhattan’s piers in the s and 80s. . How the West Side Piers went from ramshackle cruising spot to
New York: Queer Love on the West Side Piers The American photographer Stanley Stellar revisits New York’s fabled cruising spot during the early years of Gay Liberation. . New York
These works are from the largest extant series of Baltrop’s photographic practice, documenting the gay social and sexual experimentation in the empty warehouses of Manhattan’s West Side piers in the s and 80s. Baltrop’s images captured leisurely sunbathing, cruising, sexual acts, and crime scenes. .