(Click any image to enlarge. All images copyright © Gary Boas.)

In 1966 at the age of 15, Gary Lee Boas began what would become a life-long obsession with celebrity. Accompanied by his mother, Gary would travel from the small town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia and New York City, where he would wait outside theatres, studios, parties, hotels and restaurants in hopes of photographing the famous or almost famous--from actors to politicians, beauty queens to rock stars--with his instamatic camera. Over the next thirty-five years, Gary's collection swelled to 80,000 photographs, dozens of autograph books and a significant collection of correspondence with the stars he captured.

What differentiates Gary's work from that of the contemporary paparazzi is his genuine respect and adoration for his subjects. His disinterest in trying to "catch" celebrities in compromising positions and his passionate desire simply to express his admiration for them comes through in his work as intimate and compassionate. Through his years of star-chasing, Gary developed friendships with several celebrities. The stories of these relationships enrich his already abundant collection.

This exciting exhibition contains a rich cross-section of Gary's lifework--primarily from the 1960s and '70s--which is at once both refreshingly naïve and disconcertingly vast. Through the objects and images it contains, Starstruck examines the cult of celebrity, reflects on a lost innocence in the relationship between the fan and the star and explores the realm of "outsider" photography.


components and object list »

rental information and schedule »

purchase the book Starstruck: Photographs From a Fan »