Mar '06, 2/4 - That Man: Peter Berlin

New version of this segment with never-before-seen footage: https://youtu.be/1lbcu6jonOY?t=1m Peter Berlin was decades ahead of his time - the master of the SELFIE! Before the advent of the Digital Selfie phenomena, Peter created thousands of Self Portraits in film, when the whole process of film photography required time and skill that we take for granted with instant digital photography. Peter spent hours preparing for each shoot - setting up the camera, creating the outfits, developing the negatives and printing the photos himself. This level of self-portraiture has unlikely ever been matched in the pre-digital era of photography. Peter Berlin - The true master of the SELFIE. In the '70s, Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene picked up a Hasselblad, started taking double-exposured self portraits, and became Peter Berlin. His career took off as gay men around the world instantly recognized his homoerotic images in magazines. Then all of a sudden, he dropped out of the limelight. Thirty years later at age 62, he comes out of silence in a documentary by Jim Tushinski, _That Man: Peter Berlin_. Raymond Donald Hong interviews the elusive Peter Berlin in this segment. More information on the documentary at http://www.thatmanpeterberlin.com/ More information on the original motion picture soundtrack by Jack Curtis Dubrowsky at https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/jackcurtisdubowsky3 and http://open.spotify.com/album/6r7kLYCINT6qZeLTcelmA8 PETER BERLIN, is a photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, model and gay sex symbol. In the early to mid-1970s, Berlin created some of the most recognizable gay male erotic imagery of his time. Serving as his own photographer, model, and fashion designer, Berlin redefined self-portraiture and became an international sensation. His two films, _Nights in Black Leather_ (1973) and _That Boy_ (1974) (credited in the latter as Peter Burian), played to packed houses for years and, along with other pioneering erotic filmmakers such as Wakefield Poole and Jack Deveau, helped bring gay male erotic films artistic legitimacy. Born…Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene aka in 1942 WW2 Germany. He was the second of the three children He was born in Łódź, Poland, and grew up in Berlin, Germany. The extended family included the American fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene. (lover of famed Hollywood photographer Horst) He received post-secondary education in Germany as a photo-technician. In his early 20s, he worked as a photographer for an interview program on German TV, photographing some of Europe's biggest celebrities and film stars. Berlin designed and sewed all of his clothing without a pattern. He also was a painter and illustrator. He began photographing himself in erotic poses and making skin-tight clothes to wear as he cruised the parks and train stations of Berlin, the streets of Rome, Paris, NY and SF. In the early 1970s, Berlin moved to San Francisco and became a fixture on the streets with his highly suggestive clothing and constant cruising. He collaborated with friend Richard Abel on a 16 mm hard-core porn film entitled _Nights in Black Leather_ (1973) in which he played the lead role. Berlin's poster for the film helped make _Nights in Black Leather_ an underground hit. As a follow-up, Berlin directed, produced, wrote, and starred in _That Boy_ (1974), another successful film. He also made four short films in the mid- to late-1970s, which were primarily sold as 8 mm "loops" by mail order. His self-portraits were published and sold. He was also the subject of several Robert Mapplethorpe photographs, five drawings by Tom of Finland, and at least one photograph by Andy Warhol. Two Robert Mapplethorpe Polaroid images of Berlin can be seen in the 2008 book, Mapplethorpe: Polaroids, and the Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition of the same name. Berlin's photographs and artwork have been exhibited around the world, including the exhibition "Split/Vision" (NYC, 1986), curated by Mapplethorpe, and in the exhibition "Berlin on Berlin" (2006) at the Leslie Lohman Gallery in NYC. Although he retreated from the limelight in the 1980s, he continues to make videos of himself and lives quietly in San Francisco, where he is still frequently recognized on the streets.