Andy Fair

Based in New York, Andy Fair has created in queer adult spaces for over 20 years. His work is informed by a history of queer and sex positive street activism. Applying his background in theater and film, he explores themes of camp, sex and politics (not necessarily in that order) and how they relate and overlap. He believes you can’t have one without the others.

Born in Brooklyn and growing up in and around New York City, Andy considered himself a punk anarchist before discovering and identifying with the Situationist International. His anti-authoritarian nature led to his being politely asked to leave public school early. Nevertheless, he found his way first to New York University and then settled into the Conservatory Program for Visual Arts at SUNY Purchase where he earned his Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts.

Returning to NYC, he worked on a range of low budget indie LGBTQ+ film productions. However, he found many of the queer-centric films of that time to be either too apologetic or conversely too abstruse. Looking to more substantial queerness, he made his way to the underground club scene in the East Village during then Mayor Guiliani’s war on nightlife.

Creating in that environment, Andy found himself in the infamous world of NYC public access cable television. Phone sex lines, escort commercials, Midnight Blue and celebrities like Robin Byrd, Lou Maletta and Al Goldstein. He was thrilled to have projects recognized in Al Goldstein’s SCREW Magazine as well as Honcho Magazine and other iconic underground-ish media.

He produced the drag performer Hedda Lettuce’s wildly popular cable access show before going on to produce the live performance drag-rock concert movie, “Live At Squeezebox - Sex, Drags and Rock & Roll.” Other ‘no-budget’ collaborations with provocative titles like “Fisty-Girl & Nancy-Boy” and “Queer Carpentry Seminar” were well received in LGBTQ+ film festivals in multiple countries.

Andy went on to create Apartment 21, the first gay 24/7 live-cam site, which was named in the top ten of 2000 by Art Forum magazine. In keeping with his DIY ethos, he became the driving force behind a variety of ‘regular guy next door’ adult websites. Projects included DirtyBoyVideo, featuring amateur models often performing for the first time.

These sites won fan recognition and awards from adult industry organizations like XBiz and AVN (Adult Video News). Andy has spoken on panels and appeared in seminars addressing the creative and marketing sides of adult entertainment online.

Andy is currently collaborating on an image book exploring the underappreciated queer activism that shaped LGBTQ+ life in the period between the peak of Act Up and the phenomenon of Drag Race.