Rick Castro

Rick Castro (July 20, 1958) is an American photographer, motion picture director, stylist, curator and writer whose work focuses on BDSM, fetish, and desire.

Early life
Castro began work as a fashion stylist and clothing designer. Over the years, he worked for as a stylist on fashion shoots or designed clothing for Marlene Stewart, Bette Midler, David Bowie, Herb Ritts, the style agency Cloutier, George Hurrell, Interview magazine, GQ magazine, Vanity Fair magazine, Rolling Stone magazine, I-D magazine, Tina Turner and John Leguizamo. Castro was the designer for Michele Lamy's first menswear collection- Lamy Men, (1986-1989).

Photographic career
In 1986, photographer Joel-Peter Witkin took him to purchase his first camera in Albuquerque, NM. In 1988, at the age of 30, Castro became a freelance photographer, and his work appeared in the Los Angeles gay news magazines Frontiers, Drummer and the national gay news magazine, The Advocate.

His first solo exhibition, "Nothing But A Man, Everything But A Woman", debuted in 1989 at A Different Light Bookstore in Silver Lake, a suburb of Los Angeles. It was followed a year later by "Mass Murder & A Cute Boy" at the same location.

Throughout the years, Castro has had a number of exhibitions, including "Furotica: It Ain't Exactly Bambi" at the Track 16 gallery in Los Angeles, 2003.

Castro's work is collected by the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction, ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, and the Tom of Finland Foundation.

His 1994 short film of hustler interviews inspired Bruce LaBruce to film Hustler White with Tony Ward. Castro collaborated on the film as writer and co-director with LaBruce, which became an international sensation. In 1998, he appeared in Sex/Life in L.A. Jochen Hick's adult documentary about the sex lives of the guys who make L.A. adult movies. Castro has directed a number of other short films and a documentary, Plushies & Furries, (2001) for MTV.

Rick Castro has lived in Los Angeles his entire life. He was the West coast correspondent for the Australia-based Studio Magazines, publisher of the nude male art photography magazine Blue 2001 thru 2007.

Rick's first gallery opened at Les Duex Cafes, Hollywood, in 2002, and premiered the first Furry themed art show. Castro then founded and ran Antebellum Gallery, the only fetish art gallery in America, and perhaps the world- November 11, 2005 thru January 1, 2017.

Castro shot the F/W look book 2014 for designer Rick Owens using his 93-year-old father Al Castro as the featured model.

During October, 2015, Rick Castro received an artist lifetime Achievement award from the Tom of Finland foundation. Castro's photography was featured in Rick Owens: Subhuman, Inhuman, Superhuman at Triennale di Milano, December 2017- March 2018. Castro was interviewed by his former boyfriend, designer Rick Owens for the May 2019 issue of Autre Magazine, and featured in the historic first queer issue of Los Angeles Magazine, June 2019. Castro has received a grant from Department of Cultural Affairs, Los Angeles for a virtual project entitled Reimagine Home~ 2020. Castro is contributing photographer and writer for Another and Anotherman Magazines UK.

Rick also received a grant from Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to create a virtual memorial entitled The Goddess Bunny Story, for one of his early models, Sandie Crisp, AKA The Goddess Bunny, who died of COVID-19 on 27, January, 2021.

Three of Castro's large scale images were featured in Illuminate LA’s Collective Memory Installation, Grand Park, Los Angeles, February/March 2023, with a grant provided by LA County Department of Cultural Affairs.

Castro was one of the featured artists presenting a slide show of his photography and lecture for Queering The Lens at The Getty Center, kicking off Pride, June 2023.

Castro presented his new book Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Photographs of Street Hustlers and Remembrances-1986-1999, (All Night Menu) at the Queer Book Fair West Hollywood during June, 2023, and Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC, 21, April, 2024.

"Rick Castro Forever" was presented at Hollywood Forever Cemetery at the historic columbarium, October 5th through November 30th, 2024. Castro's photography brought queer sensibility to Hollywood Forever. , "Columbarium Continuum: by Rick Castro", is an ongoing unique museum hosted at Hollywood Forever.

Castro was part of a history group exhibition, Queer-ish presented at the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont during November/December, 2023. This was the first queer photography presentation in the ninety-eight year history of Scripps College.

On 21, February, 2024, Castro presented a lecture and slideshow hosted by Photo Friends at Los Angeles Central Library, where he presented the second edition of his book, Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Photographs of Hustlers & Remembrances-1986-199.

Castro is featured in Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Brooklyn Museum, New York, 15, November, 2023 through 31, March, 2024. This historic exhibition features 1400 items from zine creators since 1970 through present day. The exhibition is now at Vancouver Art Gallery, BC,  April,11, through September 22, 2024.

Rick's photography & book talk were featured in Tom of Finland Art & Culture Festival at Halle am Berghain, Berlin, 1&2, June, 2024.

Castro's photography was featured in Vitam Picturarum (Life in Pictures) sponsored by WeHo Arts Festival, Long Hall, Plummer Park, West Hollywood, CA- 14-24 June, 2024.

Critical assessment
Castro works predominately in black-and-white photography.

Castro himself says his work is highly time-bound, linked to the 1980s and early 1990s:

"My documentation is a time capsule of that period. The early 80s started off with the leftover freedoms and hedonism of the 70s, then plunged into the darkness and fear that accompanied AIDS. Sex was once again demonized, as it had previously been in the Victorian era and the 50s. ... As fear of sex and the religious right gained even more power, the undercover police constantly patrolled the streets. At the same time drugs (crack, 'Tina') became harsher as the unstable economy created desperation on the street. Then the Internet came along with a network of online brothels and eventually wiped out the street scene entirely."

In many ways, Castro can almost be said to be a historical photographer, recreating images and looks from that time period rather than capturing contemporary styles. "Nostalgia" is not a word one usually associates with BDSM photography, but in Castro's case it may be an apt adjective.

Castro's photography also stands in the quasi-religious tradition of most BDSM photography. The art historian and critic Edward Lucie-Smith has pointed out that Castro's work is deeply rooted in religious art, especially Catholic art of the Baroque period. The believer, suffering for his beliefs, is mimicked by the gay man, suffering for his homosexuality. The ecstasy of martyrdom is mimicked by the ecstasy of sex. These themes were explored by the Christian Baroque painters, and Castro's bondage photography—like most bondage photography—draws heavily on these paintings for its poses.

But Castro's photography is not run-of-the-mill BDSM imagery. Writer Mark Christopher Harvey notes that Castro's photography "can be viewed as a long form of meditation—not only on the aesthetic virtues of bondage but also on the psyche of sex itself..." Harvey points to the "wry humor" that is often missing in more commercially inspired or less artistic BDSM photographs.

In including humor in his work, Castro confounds the Baroque—which focuses on simple, strong, dramatic expression—in favor of Mannerism, and he avoids the self-conscious, overcharged, unnaturally detailed, jarring elements of Mannerism.

Castro's work moves beyond artistic characteristics to capture the sexual fetishism of BDSM as well. The transgressive nature of leather fetishism—hearkening back to 'bad-boy' film images made popular by James Dean and Marlon Brando—intersects with the transgressive nature of homosexual sex and promiscuity in the era of AIDS. Castro's images have power because they are those of the true fetishist. These are not images produced by 'just any' photographer who can hire a handsome model and buy a leather harness off the rack at a local sex shop. Castro's images reflect the imagination and variety of BDSM and leather fetishists; they create and lead, rather than follow, popular culture and sexual fashion.

Published books


He has also self-published the following hand-made books:
 * Zack 1991
 * The Bondage Book #1. 1992.
 * The Bondage Book #2. 1993
 * The Bondage Book #3. 1994
 * The Bondage Book #4. 1996

Filmed works

 * 1992: Automolove
 * 1993:  Fertile Latoyah Jackson Video Magazine #1
 * 1994: 45 Minutes of Bondage
 * 1994:  Fertile Latoyah Jackson Video Magazine#2 The Kinky Issue
 * 1994:  Three Faces of Women
 * 1996: Hustler White
 * 1997: Another 45 Minutes of Bondage
 * 2001: Plushies and Furries
 * 2013   ANTEBELLUM2013
 * 2014:  ANTEBELLUM2014
 * 2015:  ANTEBELLUM2015
 * 2016:  ANTEBELLUM2016
 * 2017:  The Dark Waters of Hotel Cecil