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Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful, Sad Book
Review: Crawford Barton, (1943-1993) was born in fundamentalist Georgia and spent some time in Atlanta before migrating to the West Coast, where he obviously came into his own, both as an artist and a gay man. In this book of beautiful photographs he captures that halcyon time in San Francisco, never to be repeated, after Stonewall and before the assassination of Harvey Milk and then the plague of AIDS. As the title so aptly says, it was a time of hope, but also of innocent abandon, of a newly won sexual and political freedom when anything was possible. There are photographs here of Harvey Milk, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the young Sal Mineo in a garish 70's coat and wide tie. There are also many photos here of Gay Pride parades, photos of people getting ready for the parade and having a great time afterwards. While there is much laughter here, we cannot forget that many of these individuals, including Barton and his lover Larry Lara, whom he photographed extensively, in a few years would be sick and dying but taking care of their own, showing strength and courage that made us all proud to be gay Americans.
This remains one of my favorite books of photography. If you do not know about it, you owe it to yourself to find a copy somewhere. It's a beautiful, sad book and should always remain in print.
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