The name John Stanley kept popping up in association with the Camera Club of New York (he’s the director), and it sent me to his site to learn more about him. What I learned is that he’s a terrific story teller. I was really drawn to his series, New York Hookups, as a way to document memory and experience–a visual diary of sorts.

Originally from Hartford, Connecticut, now based in Brooklyn John received his MFA in Photography, Video and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in 2009, where he was the recipient of the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award. He is currently the Director of the Camera Club of New York (CCNY) and has previously worked as the Education Coordinator at SF Camerawork (San Francisco), managing the First Exposures mentoring program for underserved youth. He has exhibited at Edward Hopper House Art Center, Nyack, NY, and at P.S. 122 Gallery, Visual Arts Gallery, and Envoy Enterprises in NYC.

New York Hookups: The photographs of the New York Hookups series record the entrances of the homes where I have had sex in New York. They are an attempt to not only catalogue these experiences, but to also an attempt at remembering every time and every man individually. By writing something specific, I want to reach out past a present-day barrier to show something unique and precious that was once briefly opened up to me. I also attempt to recall something that might not really have happened, in the face of not always remembering accurately now if this was the correct threshold, the right address, or the actual memory or person to go along with what I have hunted down photographically.

Images from New York Hookups

his parents were coming to visit soon from India, 2007

had a loveable fat cat, 2007

we got a six-pack together, 2007

we later had an argument about terrorism, 2007

wanted me to come over after his roommate was asleep, 2007

was uncomfortable at straight bars, 2007

majored in Slavic Studies, 2007

lived with his brother, 2007

played video games in the morning, 2007

wanted to have CNN on the whole time, 2007

maybe thought I was too white, 2007

his window plants had just died, 2007

drove an SUV, 2007

kicked me out late at night, 2007

had a great showerhead, 2007

knew all the “Chicago” songs by heart, 2007

he didn’t like his neighborhood, 2007