#BillKing, a fashion photographer who popularized the ‘Wild Party’ vibe and used male nudes as props to enhance the female subjects, died of #AIDS 19 November 1987 at #BethIsraelHospital. He was 48 years old and lived in #Manhattan and #Paris. King had his own business, the #BillKingStudio, at 100 Fifth Avenue. His photographs appeared frequently in #Vogue magazine. He was a member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. King was not only the toast of the Milan and Paris fashion elite; models and actors alike also favored him above others for his ability to bring out their best in every shot. In the late 1970s, King was a regular at #Studio54. Legend has it that he photographed one of his fashion peers in acts of great decadence in New York club Hurrah which have never been published and suppressed in part by closeted attorney #RoyCohn who also died of an AIDS related illness in 1986. It is a fact that his studio accidentally burned down during his final life-threatening illness. Many of his works may have been lost in the fire. Today, however, King is barely mentioned in books and other histories of photography and fashion. When King was dying of AIDS - he lived a very, very wild, decadent, dissolute life - he said to one of his friends, ‘Maybe if I hadn’t been so fucked up I wouldn’t be dying.’ And she looked at him and she said, ‘Bill, if you hadn’t been so fucked up you wouldn’t have been Bill King.’ #whatisrememberedlives #theaidsmemorial #aidsmemorial #endaids #neverforget #lgbthistory
