Robert Giard, 62; Portraitist Focused on Gay Literary Figures
Robert Giard, 62, a portraitist who traveled the country to photograph gay and lesbian literary figures, died July 16 of an apparent heart attack while on a bus trip from Minneapolis to Chicago.
Giard took nearly 600 black and white photographs of gay writers. He posed his subjects--who included Allen Ginsberg, Quentin Crisp and Andrea Dworkin--in simple settings surrounded by things they loved.
Giard was inspired to begin the project in 1985 after seeing “The Normal Heart,” Larry Kramer’s play about the AIDS crisis. Many of his photographs were included in the 1997 book “Particular Voices,” which was the basis for a New York Public Library exhibit.
Born in Hartford, Conn., Giard earned degrees from Yale and Boston University. He taught himself photography in the early 1970s.
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