Some of these photos might well have originally been considered outtakes in the context of the primary purpose of the shoot.

But anyone familiar with Goedde’s oeuvre will probably be aware that he has a well-established talent for deriving later value from lesser-known or, indeed, previously unpublished images from his archive.

Here, he has even included a few ‘BTS’ location shots of himself in his role as the photographer at work. These all show him sporting the bandana that provided his ‘guerrilla lensman’ look of those times.

As a journalist I have long accepted the veracity of the old adage ‘one picture is worth a thousand words’. But there is also a complementary truth, which is that the story behind a picture can add greatly to its value as an image.

And the Chinatown ’96 booklet provides, in its introductory pages, not just one story behind its images, but the recollections around that legendary shoot of all four of its principal participants.

So below, to conclude this account, is a brief flavour of what each of the four main players reveal in their respective introductory texts…

Steve explains that for the So Hip It Hurts shoot, he shot primarily on black and white film. But he did shoot a couple of rolls of colour transparencies “to showcase Molly’s incredible colour fashion design” — these mainly ending up being supplied to magazines.

He kept back just a few “outtakes and arty photos” from the colour set. The most important of these was “an accidental shot” of Kumi adjusting her fishnets (see further down this page), which would become the cover of his first book, The Beauty of Fetish (Edition Stemmle), released two years later.

MOLLY McGEE: So Hip It Hurts designer ‘deeply immersed in Chinese culture’ (photo: SDG)

Molly (above) recalls that at the time, she was “a serious practitioner of Wing Chun Kung Fu and deeply immersed in Chinese culture”. It naturally found its way into her designs, and “the first latex cheongsam dress emerged”.

To the designer, the shoot was “just another creative day” with her longtime friend Steve — wandering around Chinatown, taking pictures, laughing and experimenting. “None of us knew we were creating images that would still resonate 30 years later,” she says.

Midori remembers San Francisco in the ’90s as a time when those living, working, and creating in the margins could afford a place to live, have enough to get by, and have some fun. “Sex and kink spaces smelled of desire, nihilism, and the aftermath of experimentation,” she recalls.

“We didn’t take photos of acts of dark desires for public approval — except when we did create images as acts of resistance. We created art, photos, and films that reflected our aesthetics and identities, knowing that if we didn’t create these, who would?”

Kumi was just 26 and felt “ invulnerable, fuelled by blissful ignorance”. Thus, she decided to party right through the night before the shoot. The other model booked by Molly for the shoot cancelled, but luckily they found a replacement in local kinkster Midori who was “willing to run around in latex in public on a chilly San Francisco morning”.

They were watched by a small crowd of tourists and locals. “I remember trying to look normal,” says Kumi, “despite the red rubber dress with slits that looked more like a T-shirt with flaps, seven-inch heels, and even higher hair! But I also remember telling myself, “Fuck it. We’re here, let’s get this done.” TM