Sexy Photos of Provincetown’s Gay Bear Week 10+ Years Ago, Inspire With Message: “Be Kinder … Make Sanctuary … Feel at Ease,” Says Artist Paul Specht

Paul Specht grew up on the North Shore area of Massachusetts , just outside of Boston. He developed his love of photography from his father who gave him his first 110 camera. In 1987 he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst to pursue a BFA in print making before graduating from Boston’s New England School of Photography where he studied portraiture. Paul’s first journey to Provincetown was in the summer of 1981. He distinctly remembers traveling down Commercial St with his family in their beige station wagon. “I recall peering out the window and having my mother telling me not to stare. I was not yet a teenager but there was a feeling with the people on the streets that told me I was home.” Paul currently resides in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts with his husband Eric.