Androgynous Apocalypse

Text & Photos by Fred Berger
This vertical Black & White photo depicts Propaganda model Christoph. He is sitting on a vertically positioned rusted iron girder with the anarchy “A” symbol spray-painted on it in white paint. He wears a black leather motorcycle jacket and black latex thigh-high boots with 4-inch heels. He also wears a black leather choker and belt decorated with chains. He is sitting in profile facing left and his full body is visible. He is tall and slim, and has a pale complexion and delicately chiseled facial features. His hair is dark and cut short except for long tresses on top blowing in the breeze. The photo was shot at a somewhat low angle, and shows a damaged concrete grain silo with a crane on top towering over the scene in the background. This photo was taken in 1996 by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
Avenger catches sight of something in the distance that rivets his attention. Fortunately, his radiation resistant latex thigh-high boots by Demask will get him safely through the hazardous debris field to his destination. (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger, model Christoph)

I’ve had a lifelong fascination with the End of Days, which first germinated in my young mind during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. At that time, the whole country was in a state of panic over the seemingly imminent outbreak of nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. My father was a Civil Defense warden, and he instilled in me a strong sense of impending disaster, complete with instructions on how to use a ham radio and a Geiger counter. He was so prepared for the worst, that he almost looked forward to the day when “the shit hits the fan,” as he so eloquently described it. Fortunately, frantic diplomatic efforts defused the crisis at the last possible moment, and the entire world breathed a collective sigh of relief. Even so, an apocalyptic mindset influenced my worldview thereafter, which was further exacerbated by other Cold War conflicts, as well as televised prophets of doom who continuously sounded the alarm from a biblical or geo-political perspective.

This horizontal Black & White photo depicts Propaganda model Sky. He is leaning back in a somewhat reclined position on rubble-strewn ground in front of a battered concrete wall. He wears a black vinyl tank top over a fishnet shirt, plus a black vinyl waist cincher with four buckled belts. He also wears a black leather choker and two waist belts with silver buckles, and tight black vinyl pants. He is visible from the crotch up, and is facing to the right in a three-quarter view perspective. His slender build is perfect for feminine fetish-wear. He has a bowl haircut and fine Asian facial features. This photo was taken in 1996 by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
Spider senses that he has become an object of interest and plays it cool. He wears a Lip Service vinyl waist cincher which he purchased at Enz’s rock boutique in Greenwich Village before New York was atomized. (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger, model Sky)

Pop culture contributed heavily to the end-times mania, with David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs LP in 1974 and the post-World War 3 action movie The Road Warrior in 1981 having an especially strong influence on my overwrought imagination. I was literally seduced by Bowie’s latest androgynous persona, Halloween Jack, appearing on the album’s dustjacket as a mutant man-dog hybrid, and by the film’s queer outlaw biker couple, Wez and the Golden Youth. These exquisitely stylized and romanticized productions had the effect of transforming my perception of Doomsday from trepidation to fetishization. It was the fusion of these esoteric, aesthetic, and erotic sensibilities that formed the basis of Propaganda Magazine’s unique counterculture brand. In fact, it was the looming threat of Armageddon that spurred me to work at a feverish pace and make a maximum effort to not only cover the punk and goth scenes, but also to shape them according to my own preferences and artistic vision.

This horizontal Black & White photo depicts Christoph kissing Sky on the back of his neck. This head and shoulders photo was shot in profile with both models facing to the left. Christoph’s chest is pressed against Sky’s back, and his left hand gently caresses Sky’s neck. Their dark windblown hair is elegantly tousled. The concrete wall in the background is spray-painted with the words “NUKE THIS EYE SORE” in white capital letters. This photo was taken in 1996 by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
The deal is sealed with a furtive kiss in defiance of the spray-painted epithet on the wall. The amazing adventures of Spider and Avenger are just beginning. (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger, models Sky and Christoph)

The four photos appearing in this article were taken in 1996 and represent an anarchistic departure from the status quo that mainstream society tries so hard to uphold. The dystopian setting was a demolished factory complex in Port Washington, Long Island in the state of New York. Looking suitably post-apocalyptic, it even had apropos graffiti, with the phrase “NUKE THIS EYE SORE” and the anarchist “A” symbol spray-painted on the ruins. The models were selected for their androgynous appeal and lack of inhibitions about the shoot’s queer-fetish theme. The Asian beauty is Sky and the other is Christoph of French Cajun extraction, both genuine goth boys from New York City and Louisiana respectively. It was the first homo-romantic shoot I had ever done, and it vividly captured the civilizational collapse so strikingly portrayed in Diamond Dogs and The Road Warrior. Never had the Apocalypse seemed so beautiful – or desirable.

This vertical Black & White photo depicts Christoph on the left and Sky on the right. Christoph’s left arm is around Sky’s shoulder and Sky’s right arm is around Christoph’s waist. It’s a frontal shot from the hips up, with both models looking past the camera with dreamy expressions. They are both strikingly beautiful with chiseled faces and angular physiques. Christoph has dark heavy lipstick and eye makeup, and his hair covers the right side of his face. He has removed his motorcycle jacket and wears a skintight black nylon shirt with one long vertical zipper in the middle and two nipple zippers for a provocative effect. He also wears a black leather choker decorated with silver chains, as well as three waist belts decorated with silver spikes and studs. Sky has dark lipstick and eyebrow pencil, and his bowl haircut is parted in the middle. He wears the same attire as described in a previous photo caption. In the background is a damaged factory building. This photo was taken in 1996 by Propaganda publisher and editor Fred Berger.
Having removed his biker jacket, Avenger reveals a skintight Catherine Coatney nylon zipper shirt. This end-of-the-world tryst appeared in Propaganda Issue #23/Fall 1996 as a photo feature entitled “Ground Zero.” (Photo & Copyright © by Fred Berger, models Christoph & Sky)
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