We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Mike Balaban. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Mike below.
Alright, Mike thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My mission is to live an openly gay life, serve as an example to others, and use my visibility and platforms to encourage others to do the same. Together, we will build a stronger and more unified LGBTQ+ community.
I grew up in the US when it wasn’t possible to be open about my alternative sexual orientation. Even after coming out as gay to close family and friends in the late 1970s, I still had to be totally closeted in my career on Wall Street until 1999. Since then, I’ve strived to be my true self wherever I go. Now that I have a multi-channel platform with 50,000 engaged followers globally, I affirm the message that being queer is natural and wonderful, even if many still can’t be open about themselves in hostile environments. I promote the need for LGBTQ+ people to accept that we are all family and to act that way with each other, a view that is not universally accepted, even among some in the queer community.
Mike , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I’ve always taken photos of people in my life. It was important for me to be able to remember my life visually. I never expected others to be interested in my photos; I collected them for myself for more than 40 years. After retiring from my career as an Asia-focused business advisor in 2016, I decided to share some of my vintage photos on my new Instagram page and the response was overwhelming. Candid images I’d taken of my gay friends and me living our lives during the AIDS era attracted a sizable audience. Today,, my Instagram page, @bammer47, has 28,000 followers globally. Along the way, I began telling stories from my life to accompany my photos, then branched into discussing topics of interest to the LGBTQ+ community at large. I have been called both an “accidental gay historian” and “a gay Carrie Bradshaw” (referring to the lead character on 1990s TV’s “Sex & the City”). I find the latter moniker bemusing.
I’m known for being authentic, honest even when conversations might be embarrassing or uncomfortable I strive to engage as many viewers as possible, seeking to generate conversations among us . I espouse a message of absolute inclusivity. My belief is that, if you are LGBTQ+, no matter where in the world you live, you are part of our global queer family. And above all, I attempt to create a stronger LGBTQ community through story-telling.
Next, I introduced a podcast series (“BAMMER and Me”). There, I’ve interviewed 40 remarkable LGBTQ people (and allies) worldwide, some well-known, others unknown, documenting their life stories for current and future generations. I also set up a website, www.BAMMER.co, a repository for 200 stories submitted by LGBTQ people around the globe from their own lives. Finally, I created a YouTube channel, BAMMER47, where for the past three years, I’ve been posting bi-monthly videos that address an audience of 5,000+ subscribers. Each episode either tells a story from my life or discusses issues affecting the queer community, illustrated by my vintage candid photos.
Finally, while I’ve never considered myself a professional photographer, others regard me in that light. As a result, I had my first photographic exhibition in an art gallery in October 2023 at the Studio Door Art Gallery here in San Diego as part of its LGBTQ History Month and have found interest by collectors in acquiring some of my works.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
My social media presence developed almost accidentally, but I can easily explain how it happened: the few photos I initially shared on my mostly inactive Instagram account in 2016 were what are known as “click bait” or “thirst traps”, photos of attractive friends wearing skimpy Speedos on beautiful beaches around the world. Not surprisingly, these generated much more of a response than the disparate photos of family and friends I had previously posted there. I began putting up more and more of these. Since candid vintage shots of the gay subculture in the 70s and 80s are fairly rare and people love to look at “eye candy”, my page attracted 2,000 followers within the first year and has grown significantly since then. Not only that, I began to be approached in public by viewers who loved my page and recognized me from my photos. A hotshot Hollywood producer approached me at a Provincetown tea dance, told me he followed me, and asked if he could take a photo of him, his boyfriend and me together. Another follower, behind me in line for the men’s room during intermission at the theater in London’s West End, exclaimed “Wow! I love your page. I read that you were coming to London and hoped I’d be able to meet you.”
The secret to the success of @bammer47 is a combination of these rare candid images from the past, my openness in sharing their back stories and discussing issues that aren’t often written about, and the fact that I put my authentic self on display for everyone to see. The page developed naturally and organically into what it is today. If I were to have advice for anyone creating a new social media presence, I would tell them to “Be yourself. Share something you know a lot about. And hope that you’ll tap into an audience of like-minded individuals.” In the end, your process should not be aimed at persuading others to follow you as much as offering quality content about something unusual that hopefully viewers will enjoy and recommend to their friends.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I retired from the work force in 2016 at 64. While I remained on the boards of directors of two LGBTQ non-profits that mattered greatly to me, I suddenly had lots of extra time on my hands, the typical story for what a new retiree is likely to face. At that point, I pulled out my 14 photo albums from storage and looked at the 5,000-6,000 images stored there that I had taken from my childhood up through 2000. Eventually, I selected a few of my favorites and posted them on my inactive new Instagram page. I had no idea these pics would get the reception they did, much less that this was the beginning of an entirely new focus for me.
I’ve always believed that our lives involve multiple phases and the decision to share photos that had been locked away for decades constituted the beginning of the next stage of my life. Some people have their lives all planned out, but, my late-in-life focus on my own personal gay history through my photos began entirely serendipitously by being open to what came next. I now oversee content in this realm on Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, BlueSky, Threads, and www.bammer.co, as well as my budding career as an exhibited photographer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bammer.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bammer47?
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mike.balaban?
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebalaban
- Twitter: https://x.com/bammer47
- Youtube: https;//youtube.com/@bammer47mike?
- Other: https://linktr.ee/bammer47
Image Credits
Jonathan Pryce, photographer who took the profile photo of me dressed in black at the beginning of this application