An insider’s view of California’s outdoor cruising spots

Coming of age in the rural Midwest during the 1990s, photographer Daniel Case came to queer culture and community through a blend of instinctual curiosity and mundane happenstance. While on family holiday in Florida, he discovered a hitherto unknown phenomenon: men cruising public bathrooms during the daytime. 

With time, and growing understanding of his own sexuality, his fascination only grew. When Case became old enough to drive, he hit the road, bound for Michigan truck stops where likeminded others came to cruise. ​“There was one with a woodland trail behind it and I would wander around there, heart beating through my chest and have clumsy encounters,” Case says. ​“I would then seek out and explore, looking for these spaces in new cities when traveling or as I moved around.” 

Having made cruising photographs for 20 years, Case understands the nature of the terrain where the action unfolds can be akin to watching rare birds – never guaranteed. ​“Sometimes it’s empty and you are walking around in the woods alone for hours. Sometimes you are following someone, or they are following you and you’re not sure what’s going to happen,” he says. ​“You watch some people through a tree just long enough to observe and move on or maybe you join. You could be walking in a park and have no idea that down a hill, well hidden behind a bush, two men are having sex; it looks just like any other day, a landscape.” 

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With the publication of Outside Sex (Dark Entries Editions), Case crafts a panorama of cruising grounds scattered across California, like hidden gems known only to those who are intimate with the pleasures of public flesh. Working from a distance, Case places himself in the position of voyeur, the watcher whose known or unknown presence fuels the thrill of it all. The result is a lush landscape of desires unleashed under the wide-open sky, free as wind and the ocean itself. 

Case notes that many of these cruising grounds have earned their rightful place in queer history. ​“Some that I photographed have news clippings dating from the ​’70s to the ​’90s describing police raids and the lewd activity of homosexuals,” he says. ​“But these spaces change over time and fade out of popularity, or landscapes are intervened upon and naturally change as well.” 

When one park that Case had been photographing for years was landscaped and its cruising spaces destroyed, purveyors of outside sex simply created a new Shangri-La. ​“Naturally adaptive, the cruisers forged new paths and new special places were carved out,” says Case. 

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Voyeurism is an integral aspect of cruising and photography alike, with Case blurring the boundaries of both in Outside Sex. ​“There’s a secret world there, but by documenting it, it’s not as secret,” he says. ​“I’m documenting and sharing what I think is a beautiful freedom, but there’s the tension of surveillance and unknown participation. I wanted to keep some veil over the pictures selecting images that obscure identities or places. But many cruisers who see the book will hopefully recognise some of the spots. I hope that someone sees a location and has a fond memory or many there.”

Outside Sex by Daniel Case is published by Dark Entries Editions.

Miss Rosen is a free­lance arts and pho­tog­ra­phy writer, fol­low her on X.

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