The following photos were taken in 1972-73, by Bill Ravanesi as part of his work at Imageworks, then a newly organized school of photography and related media located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There he got to know firsthand the work of well known contemporary photographers, including Lisette Model, Bruce Davidson, and Danny Lyon, amongst others. Ravanesi  was living in the South End in a funky run down neighborhood with cheap rents, not far from the Bay Village neighborhood where one bar caught his attention: The Other Side. Mob run, raunchy, but lively, it felt like stepping into a setting of La Dolce Vita — Fellini-esque drag queens, cross dressers, rooms dimly lit, clutching couples, figures surfacing from alcoves, shadows and darkness, dancing and drag shows. The scene triggered instant recognition: he knew he had found a compelling subject he wanted to capture with his camera. He was particularly interested in the slings and  arrows of the transgender culture and the transitioning individuals that inhabited those shadowed spaces.

 

Photographing in late night in Bay village, the hours mostly between 10pm and 3am a few times per week, this was the first time Ravanesi used a camera to “see.” He finished the series in late 1973. A dozen of the black and white photographs were published in 1993 in the Ontario Review, edited by Joyce Carol Oates and Ray Smith.