Chuck Stallard

"If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough." World War II photographer Robert Capa's famous quote could easily be applied to Chuck Stallard, who was twice arrested while photographing demonstrations because he was too intent on getting a good close shot to clear out of the way of charging police officers. Stallard's largest body of work covers the war against HIV/AIDS as seen from the battlefronts of street demonstrations.


Church of the Good Shepherd, Beverly Hills, December, 1989
16x20 Silver-gelatin print. Signed and numbered verso.
Edition of 3 w/ handwritten text $600 unframed

Born in Kentucky, Stallard attended college at Ohio State University, where he earned a Master of Arts degree. He began his photography there, practicing photojournalism as well as fine arts photography. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987, the year that ACT UP was founded, and plunged into the new organization, becoming its most prolific photographer. He documented most of the hundreds of demonstrations and meetings the organization held during the 1980s and '90s.Stallard's work is suffused with a sense of dramatic realism through his choice of black and white and his sense of composition where the street serves as a stage and architectural features provide both framing and contrast to the action of individuals who appear small, but often prevail - at least in getting out their message. His photography has been featured in more than sixteen group and individual shows, and his work is in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the ONE International Gay & Lesbian Archives, and the 18th Street Arts Complex, among other institutions.

One of his most memorable photographs shows federal police in rubber gloves and face masks preparing to arrest activists blocking the doors of a government building. "Most of the people in that photograph are dead now," Stallard recalls. But because of the work of ACT UP, which his photography helped to bring to a wide audience, many more benefited from the organization’s work - and are alive because of it.

Education:
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, B.A. / M.A.

Selected Individual Shows:
New Vocabulary, Silver Image Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, 1986.
Ecce Lesbo/Ecce Homo: A Photo Retrospective, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 1990.
The Problem Takes Shape, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 1991.
Opening Day, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 1993.

Selected Group Shows:
Photography in Columbus, The Columbus Cultural Arts Center, Columbus, Ohio 1984.
Naked, Boulder Center for the Visual Arts, Boulder, CO, 1985.
New Work, Riverfront Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, 1985.
Three Statements, ARTreach Gallery, Columbus, Ohio 1985.
36 Inches is a Yard, Ft. Hayes Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, 1987.
AIDS: The Artists Response, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, Columbus, Ohio, 1989. (Curated by Jan Grover)
69 Hours On-Line Against AIDS, Capp Street Project, San Francisco, CA, 1990.
Raging at the Visible: AIDS in the City of Angels, LA Municipal Gallery / Barnsdall Art Park, Los Angeles, CA, 1990 (Curated by Susan Foley-Johansen)
Strategies, Los Angeles Photography Center, Los Angeles, CA, 1991. (Curated by Laura Aguilar)
Who’s Caring?: Women and HIV, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, Los Angeles, CA, 1991.
On a Queer Day You Can See Forever, EYE Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1992. (Curated by Lynette Molnar)
Four (More) Years of …?, Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies, Los Angeles, California, 1992.
The Perilous Night: A Second Generation of Queer Pop Artists, Highways Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, 1993. (Curated by Jordan Peimer)
Other Projects:
AIDS Memorial Floor, Interactive Installation, Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA, 1989.
In Living Memory, Public Art Project using Outdoor Advertising Spaces, Various Locations, Greater Los Angeles Area, 1993, photography for project in collaboration with Ruth Ann Anderson, Suvan Geer and Sandra Golvin.

Photographs included in the documentary film, Laughing Matters: The Men, directed by Andrea Meyerson, All Out Films, 2007.

Permanent Collections:
18th Street Arts Complex, Santa Monica, CA.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Los Angeles, CA.
One Institute / International Gay and Lesbian Archives, Los Angeles, CA.
The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

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