SLAVA MOGUTIN is a Siberian-born artist and writer, exiled from Russia for his queer writings and activism at the age of twenty-one. He was granted political asylum in the US with the support of Amnesty International and PEN American Center. He is the author of seven books in Russian and the winner of the Andrei Bely Prize for Poetry (2000). Mogutin’s photography has been exhibited internationally and featured in a wide range of publications including The New York Times, The Village Voice, ArtUS, i-D, Visionaire, L’Uomo Vogue, and Stern. In 2005, together with his partner-collaborator Brian Kenny, he formed SUPERM, a multimedia art team, responsible for site-specific installations and shows in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Berlin, Oslo, London, and Leon, Spain. His first monograph, Lost Boys, was published by powerHouse Books in 2006 and became an instant best seller. He is currently based in New York City.

Slava Mogutin, the notorious Russian dissident-turned-art-star and creator of the critically acclaimed Lost Boys (powerHouse Books, 2006), returns with his second monograph, NYC Go-Go, a tribute to the golden age of New York City nightlife.

The once-glittering club world had all but disappeared by the time Mogutin arrived in America in the mid-1990s. Under Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s controversial "Quality of Life" campaign, downtown clubs paid the ultimate price: owners were branded community pariahs and paid crippling fines for alleged disruptiveness, while others were prosecuted for criminal acts; many legendary night spots were wiped off the map altogether.

In his new book, Mogutin documents the ever-shrinking downtown gay scene, taking us inside remaining joints like the Cock, Boysroom, and Mr. Black. NYC Go-Go is a wild and raunchy journey into the decaying but utterly decadent underworld of hustlers and go-go boys. Some of them are "rough trade"—thugs with criminal pasts, busted for prostitution, drugs, or armed assault—while others are "gay for pay," married with kids and hustling for their families; most are Mogutin’s friends. NYC Go-Go captures the spirit of a scene under fire with Mogutin’s trademark raw, in-your-face style.