“New York from the 1980s was crazy,” says photographer and photography collector Pedro Slim as he thinks back to his early days buying art. “I did terrible things economically.” Driven by passion and pleasure in equal part, Pedro has been blessed with a discerning eye that effortlessly distils the exquisite nuances of the human body, whether clothed or nude.
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“I never thought of myself as having a collection,” he says. “I just bought pieces I liked, mainly nudes, by photographers like Peter Hujar and Allen Frame, who has been so important in my life.” Then one day, someone asked to borrow the collection, and everything became clear.
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With images dating back to the turn of the 20th century, Pedro’s collection chronicles photography’s longstanding love affair with the human form. Whether embracing the classical glamour of George Platt Lynes’ homoerotic works made in the 40s, when depictions of male full-frontal nudity was illegal, or gazing upon Merry Alpern’s gritty images of sex workers in the backroom of a 90s Manhattan strip club, Pedro has amassed a breathtaking collection of black-and-white photographs that are sexy, cinematic and tender.
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Over the past four decades, Pedro’s collection has grown to include works by luminaries likeLarry Clark, Robert Mapplethorpe, Diane Arbus,Helmut Newton, Man Ray, Horst P. Horst andNan Goldin, to name just a few. A new exhibition, Clandestine: The Photo Collection of Pedro Slim, takes us on a whirlwind tour through some of Pedro’s most captivating works. From an Anthony Friedkin portrait of Divine sitting backstage at San Francisco’s Palace Theatre in 1972 to Mary Ellen Mark‘s 1994 photograph of a bearded lady reclining in the bathtub, each image offers a timeless take on the beauty, joy and wonder of the body.
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