KENNETH ANGER (ca. 1965) Portrait

[Los Angeles, ca. 1965]. Vintage original 11 x 8 3/8″ (28 x 21.5 cm.) double weight borderless black-and-white photo. Diagonal crease at upper top left, overall near fine.

Kenneth Anger (February 3, 1927 – May 11, 2023) was one of the great American underground filmmakers and one of the preeminent names both in LGBTQ film and in the history of alternative, experimental cinema. Working exclusively in short films, he produced almost 40 works since 1937, nine of which have been grouped together as the “Magick Lantern Cycle”.

His films variously merge surrealism with homoeroticism and the occult, and have been described as containing elements of erotica, documentary, psychodrama, and spectacle. Anger is certainly the first whose work addressed homosexuality in an undisguised, non-coded language, and several of his early films were released before the legalization of homosexual acts between consenting adults in the United States. He also focused on occult themes in many of his films, being fascinated by the English gnostic mage and poet Aleister Crowley, and is an adherent of Thelema, the religion Crowley founded.

A portrait of Anger from the time he was working on Scorpio Rising (1964). Provenance: Kenneth Anger collection.