A new film in the series An Art Apart was just finished: Once the toothpaste is out of the tube. It’s an in-depth peek into the life and mind of brilliant American photographer Charles Gatewood. The film was shot in the summer of 2014 in San Francisco with the help of eminent Swedish artist Åsa Ersmark, and I’m very happy with how it turned out. This year has been such a Film-Gods-blessed year and it just keeps getting better!
If you’d like to show this film, just get in touch via the contact page on this site. Thank you.
American photographer Charles Gatewood started out in the 1960s as a young man with dreams of showing the world the radical cultural developments that were going on in his country. He met many of the iconic instigators of change and documented them for posterity. As the decades passed, Gatewood drifted more and more into a personal expression of sexual subcultures, both in America and abroad. His powerful photos of pioneers within the tattooing- and piercing scenes helped pave the way for the movement that was to be called “Modern Primitives”. It’s a classic example of when art, and in this example, specifically photography, merges with its general environment and takes on new forms that are impossible to stop. Or, as the San Francisco based photographer himself describes it: “Once the toothpaste is out of the tube, you can’t put it back”.
Once the toothpaste is out of the tube – An Art Apart: Charles Gatewood (trailer) from Carl Abrahamsson on Vimeo.
