Peter Berlin (70's Style Rock Tee/Gay Porn Legend)

Few people created themselves quite as completely as Peter Berlin.

With his blond hair, impossibly tight trousers, carefully posed physique, and unmistakable silhouette, Berlin became one of the defining images of 1970s gay male sexuality. Born Armin Hagen in Germany, he moved to San Francisco in the early 1970s and transformed himself into photographer, model, filmmaker, adult-film star—and ultimately his own work of art.

Berlin starred in the landmark gay adult films Nights in Black Leather (1973) and That Boy (1974), but his importance extends far beyond pornography. He designed and sewed much of his own clothing, photographed himself using elaborate self-timer setups, created his own promotional imagery, and famously cruised the streets of San Francisco dressed precisely as he appeared in his photographs. Peter Berlin wasn't simply a character he played for the camera.

His self-portraits are now recognized as significant documents of post-Stonewall gay culture. At a moment when openly erotic images of gay men were still radical, Berlin presented the male body unapologetically for gay male desire—confident, playful, narcissistic, and entirely unconcerned with heterosexual approval.

He also became part of the visual mythology of 1970s San Francisco: Castro Street, leather and Levi’s, sexual liberation, cruising, and a generation of gay men inventing new ways of seeing themselves. His photographs have since moved from adult bookstores and underground magazines into galleries, museums, and serious discussions of queer art and photography.