Real Fetish Fashion: The Folsom Street Fair, San Francisco
By Natalie Franco
15 May 2008
Started in 1984 by a coalition of community organizers and housing activists for the gay community, the Folsom Street Fair has been the center vortex for San Francisco's most transgressive festivals. It is California's third largest street spectator annual leather event in San Francisco's south of Market district. Drawing over 400,00 visitors yearly from all around the world, the fair fundraises donations for AIDS and local charities.
The experience was shot on traditional 400 T-Max film. I focused on the primary intent to freeze frame individual expressive adult-theme fashion in the disguise of leather, pleather and fetish attire. The exploration however, transgressed into a slow, but concentrated walkthrough into the shadows of people celebrating the pleasures of fixated sexual behavior. The isolated street transformed into a space for exercising sexual liberation without reprimanding the public.
Maintaining a close but invasive strategy, paved way for my ability to capture people in their rawest and rarest whimsical moments. Some invited me to take their portrait, while others remained oblivious to my presence. That invisibility became an upper advantage in seeking those decisive points in time. Another world emerged before my eyes as I saw people free the stereotypical chains of society to showcase their true underground innovative fashions.
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