Peter Berlin

Armin Hagen Freiherr von Hoyningen-Huene (born in 1942) is a photographer, artist, filmmaker, clothing designer/sewer, model and gay sex symbol best known by his stage name Peter Berlin. In the early to mid-1970s, Berlin created some of the most recognizable gay male erotic imagery of his time. Serving as his own photographer, model, and fashion designer, Berlin redefined self-portraiture and became an international sensation.

His two films, Nights in Black Leather (1973) and That Boy (1974) (credited in the latter as Peter Burian), played to packed houses for years and, along with other pioneering erotic filmmakers such as Wakefield Poole and Jack Deveau, helped bring gay male erotic films artistic legitimacy.

He was the second of the three children (a sister Mirna and a brother Reinhold who died in 1970 in a car crash) of Eduard Baron von Hoyningen-Huene and his wife Marion, 20 years old at the time of his birth. He was born in Łódź, Poland, and grew up in Berlin, Germany. The extended family included the American fashion photographer George Hoyningen-Huene.

He received post-secondary education in Germany as a photo-technician. In his early 20s, he worked as a photographer for an interview program on German television, photographing some of Europe's biggest celebrities and film stars.

Berlin designed and sewed all of his clothing without a pattern. He also was a painter and illustrator. He began photographing himself in erotic poses and making skin-tight clothes to wear as he cruised the parks and train stations of Berlin, the streets of Rome, Paris, New York and San Francisco.

In the early 1970s, Berlin moved to San Francisco and became a fixture on the streets with his highly suggestive clothing and constant cruising. He collaborated with friend Richard Abel on a 16 mm hard-core porn film entitled Nights in Black Leather (1973) in which he played the lead role. Berlin's poster for the film helped make Nights in Black Leather an underground hit.

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