A new photography exhibition is open in a rather unexpected spot in town: Hollywood Forever Cemetery. “Rick Castro Forever" highlights the work of the renowned LA fetish and fashion photographer from 1986-2022. Housed in the historic columbarium –– don’t worry, I had to look that one up too, it’s a building, kind of like a mausoleum, that houses ashes in lots of little cubbies called niches –– his work is installed throughout the building and actually inside 86 of their glass-fronted empty niches.
Castro pitched the show two years ago to co-owner and president Tyler Cassity, and after jumping through many hoops and editing out his spiciest content, they started the install. It took two months to complete –– apparently historic buildings have their quirks.
“I would say in almost all the spaces, the glass had never been removed before. So some of the screws were frozen in. So it was quite a feat. It was quite a challenge. But it was really fun,” says Castro.
Rick Castro’s work is shown throughout the columbarium, including inside 86 of its glass fronted niches. Photo by Rick Castro.
During those two months, he interacted with cemetery staff on a daily basis, but because he was inside the columbarium, he also met mourners who were visiting their loved ones, which made a real impact on him.
“I met this Russian, a mother and daughter whose father is here. … And she was crying. And then she said, ‘Oh, this is your work.’ Some of my photos are right next to her father. ‘It's so beautiful. It's so beautiful. It gives this place life.’”
The show has many themes throughout, all of which, fittingly, point back to death and the ceremony around it.
“One theme is portraits of family and loved ones that are no longer with us, like my mother … and the love of my life, Joey Napierkowski, who I photographed in 1988. I lost him to AIDS in 1992,” Castro shares, tearing up. “Something about being here makes you cry. And it's just really interesting, like a good cry. It's just something about the quietness and the calm.”
As we walked around the exhibit, our first stop was a portrait he had taken of his mother, displayed beside a photo of her from 1940. Castro said he had grown up looking at the portrait of her every day and wanted to try and duplicate it 50 years later, in 1990, when she was 80.
L: Rick Castro’s mother, 1940. R: Castro recreated this portrait of his mother in 1990 when she was 80 years old. Photos by Rick Castro.
All of Castro’s work is very personal, but he also manages to mix in the commercial too. Another niche displays dramatic black-and-white photos of his father, Al Castro, then 93, from a fashion campaign he shot for the minimalist fashion designer Rick Owens.
L: Rick Castro photographed his father, Al Castro, at age 93 for fashion designer Rick Owens’ campaign. R: Al Castro models for Rick Owens. Photos by Rick Castro.
Fetish imagery runs throughout the show as well, with appearances over the years from body art performance artist Ron Athey, and others long associated with the queer fetish scene of LA, like Miguel Beristain and Cliff Diller, founders of LA’s first fetish nightclub, Club Fuck!, in 1989.
The club, now closed, was a gathering place for the queer and industrial music scenes in Hollywood that played a big part in Castro’s life.
Miguel Beristain (left) and Cliff Diller (right) are in their Hollywood apartment. Photo by Rick Castro.
On the day we toured the show, Castro was holding an afternoon tea to celebrate queer icon Holly Woodlawn’s birthday. Interred at Hollywood Forever, and named after another famous cemetery, New York’s Woodlawn. She was a Warhol “superstar,” muse to the Velvet Underground, and openly transgender before that was really a thing. He shot her in 1989 for the Advocate magazine when she was living in LA, then acting in film and touring her cabaret act around the country.
Holly Woodlawn shot in 1989 for the “Advocate” magazine. Photo by Rick Castro.
A group of about a dozen Castro and Holly Woodlawn fans came to sip tea and mark the occasion. Daniel DiCriscio, a hairstylist and man about town, came because of Woodlawn’s impact on his life, noting, “She pushed those limits to the point where she pushed you up against a wall. You had to see her and she's not going to let you get away.”
Also in attendance: Gregory Ross and his partner, John Schuning, who collect Castro’s work and adore Woodlawn. Schuning said he had been familiar with Woodlawn’s work from her Warhol days and had been hooked ever since. “She was this trailblazing transgender superstar, back when there was no word even for transgender, and she was breaking boundaries, and she was courageous. And so I admire her for that.”
L: Gregory Ross (left), Jose Tinoco (center) and John Schuning (right) came to celebrate Holly Woodlawn. Schuning and Ross, partners, are collectors of Castro’s work. Tinoco is a self proclaimed Woodlawn superfan. R: Daniel DiCriscio said he came to celebrate Holly Woodlawn because she was an influential trailblazer in his life. Photos by Giuliana Mayo.
As for Castro, his show will run through the end of November and he’ll be holding more afternoon teas, one for LA goth legend, Rozz Williams of Christian Death, who is interred in the columbarium as well on November 6 at 5pm, and a closing tea for Oscar Wilde’s death day on November 30 at 4pm. But the end of the show won’t be the end of Castro’s time there, as he has purchased a niche for himself in the historic and appropriately moody building.
“I don't want to leave. And as a matter of fact, this is where I am going to be forever.”
“I'm definitely into pageantry and drama and ritual, but that's not religious. … To me, that's queer sensibility,” says Rick Castro of his work on display at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Photo by Giuliana Mayo.