Biografie
Arbeitet mit dem Medium Fotografie. Studierte an der Universität von Missouri. Publizierte zahlreiche Bücher, die die amerikanische Underground-Bewegung beeinflussten, u.a. auch mit William S. Burroughs. 1978 zeigte er zum ersten mal seine Forbidden Photos. - Lebt in San Francisco.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gatewood has been frequently compared to legendary photographers Weegee and Diane Arbus. As an anthropologist and visual artist, Gatewood chronicles many non-traditional aspects of American culture, exploring in depth the subcultures of body modification and the activities of the sexual underground.
The ordinary viewer may see in Gatewood's work immorality and the bizzare in the lifestyles he portrays. Gatewood's photographs, however, do not pass judgement. They are done with the measured eye of the artist and the cool but sympathetic judgement of the anthropologist. In documenting the ritual mortification of the flesh and the "extreme externalization of forbidden sexual fantasies" he has gone where no photographer has gone before. Gatewood's photographs form a major archive of many of the more radical forms of contemporary American culture. Indeed, as nudity, exhibitionism, full body tattooing and piercing, and various forms of fetished fashion and sadomasochistic excess have entered mainstream American culture, Gatewood's amazing photographs appear not only historically significant, but also uncannily prophetic.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
BOOKS:
1. "PRIMITIVES"
Foto Band
Last Gasp of San Francisco
1992. 2001
English
„Family photographer to the modern primitives is, without question, Charles Gatewood.“
-Skin Two Magazine
“Gatewood's unflagging devotion to his unusual subject matter ignited the primitivist/tribalist movement that today permeates ever the farthest reaches of our culture.“
- Art? Alternatives
„Charles Gatewood’s Primitives is strange, captivating and beautiful. A masterpiece.“
-Secret Magazine
„Charles Gatewood’s photographs of pierced, tattooed and/or otherwise decorated people give a unified face to the self-described movement of ‘primitivism.“
-Future Sex Magazine
„For the past thirty years Gatewood has worked as a visual anthropologist, closely observing a variety of U.S. subcultures. His explorations have taken him deep into the sexual underground, in whose apparent excesses he found clear connections to shamanism, mortification of the flesh, transcendence of pain and other ancient rituals and spiritual concerns.“
-A.D. Coleman, Photography in New York
“When Charles Gatewood began documenting the sexual underground in the mid-60’s, tattooing, piercing, exhibitionism, and gender bending were barely a blip on the radar screen of most Americans. That was before models accenturated their rib cages with dresses held together by rows of giant safety pins, before tattoos came to symbolize the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood, and before tourists paid to be spanked in public at S/M theme restaurants. Now Gatewood’s subjects are not so much freaks as they are countercultural icons.“
-Never/The New Nude
2. "Messy Girls!"
Fotobuch
Goliath Verlagsgesellschaft mbH
2002
Englisch/Deutsch/Französisch/Italienisch/Spanisch
MESSY GIRLS, the new book of famous Photographer Charles Gatewood, showing over 340 "Sploshing" color photographs of beautiful young fetish girls, naked and proud, smearing their nubile young bodies with pudding, honey and whipped cream, plus every messy substance imaginable.
Arty! Sexy! Fresh! & Funny!
"Messy Girls", das neueste Werk des des berüchtigten Fotografen Charles Gatewwod, zeigt auf über 340 Farbfotografien hübsche Fetisch-Mädchen, nackt und stolz, wie sie ihren jungen Körper mit Honig, Pudding oder Schlagsahne oder mit jeder nur erdenklichen schmutzigen Substanz einreiben.
Sexy! Arty! Fresh! Fun!
"Messy Girls", le nouvel oevre du célèbre photographe Charles Gatewood montre sur plus de 340 photos en couleur de jolies filles-fétiche. Nues et fières, elles frictionnent leursjeunes corps avec du miel, du pudding ou de la chantilly ou de toute sorte de substance salace.
Sexy! Artistiques! Rafraîchissant! Original!
MESSY GIRLS, l'ultimo reportage del famigerato fotografo Charles Gatewood mostra più di 340 foto a colori di bellissime feticiste, nude e altere, che spalmano le loro giovanni corpi con miele, budino e panna montata oltre a qualsiasi altra sostanza appiccicosa immaginabile.
Sexy! Artistico! Fresco! Divertente!
"Messy Girls", la obra màs reciente del famoso fotógrafo Charles Gatewood, muestra en más de 340 fotografías en color a unas bellas chicas de fetichismo, desnudas y orgullosas untando sus jóvenes cuerpos con miel, crema, nata o cualquier otra sustancia pringosa imaginable.
Sexy. Artístico. Refrescante. Original!
