Seminal Works brings together Hal Fischer’s iconic series Gay Semiotics with his rarely seen early photography and features a dynamic range of essays that consider queer culture and social change in San Francisco.
For our February 2026 Aperture PhotoBook Club gathering, Aperture’s executive director, Sarah Meister, joins the artist alongside Evan Moffitt, writer, journalist, critic, and contributor to Seminal Works, to discuss Fischer’s ongoing resonance, and how this photobook situates Fischer within the history of photography and queer aesthetics.
Support for the 2026 Aperture PhotoBook Club is generously provided by FotoFocus.
Hal Fischer (born in Kansas City, Missouri, 1950) is an artist, art critic, and museum professional. Fischer’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions and is featured in both public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York. His books include Gay Semiotics (1978) and The Gay Seventies (2019).
Sarah Meister is executive director of Aperture. She joined Aperture in May 2021, following more than twenty-five years at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is the founder and host of the Aperture PhotoBook Club.
Evan Moffitt is a writer, journalist, and critic based in London. He is the former senior editor of Frieze, and his writing has appeared in Aperture, Architectural Digest, Artforum, Art in America, ArtReview, Financial Times, The Guardian, and The New York Times.
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