His style of photographing the male nude underwent a revision. After a period of residence in Hollywood he returned to New York nearly penniless. “As Lynes became more despondent with his career as a fashion photographer his private photographs of male nudes tended to take on a darker and sharper edge. This can be seen in the photographs in this posting, the chaste photograph from the 1930s (above) relying on light and form, whereas in the photographs from the 1950s the sexual frisson is much in evidence – the opened fly on the trousers of the sailor (1954, below) and the pubic hair and jocks in the male in profile (1955), the year GPL died of cancer. In the early male nude photographs of GPL the form of the male is usually that of the ephebe, while in the latter stages of his life the male figure is, as a general rule, heavier set, the lighting more brooding, the sexuality more open. Using heavily set Sicilian peasant youths with rough hands and feet von Gloeden turned these bodies into heroic images of Grecian legend, usually photographing his nude figures in their entirety.
In Europe Wilhelm von Gloeden’s photographs of young ephebes (males between boy and man) have a much more open and confronting sexual presence. He revelled in the sensuous hedonistic beauty of what he saw as the perfection of the youthful male body. In these photographs he tried to reveal a transcendence of spirit through an aesthetic vision of androgynous physical perfection. Horst and Herbert List.įrederick Holland Day’s photographs of the male body concentrated on mythological and religious subject matter. Intertwined with this stream of photographs of masculine men are photographs of youthful male bodies (ephebes) such as appear in the works of Fredrick Holland Day and Baron von Gloeden, later to be followed by the photographs of Horst P. I studied GPL’s photographs at The Kinsey as part of my PhD research Pressing the Flesh: Sex, Body Image and the Gay Male, research which examined, in part, the history of photographic images of the muscular male body, starting with the formation of ‘The Cult of Muscularity’ in the last decade of the 19th century which was a reaction to the perceived effeminisation of heterosexual masculinity. It’s a pity there aren’t more of his stunning male nude photographs in the posting, but we are happy for small mercies. What an absolute privilege it is to be able to publish these magnificent photographs by George Platt Lynes from the Kinsey Institute. Young of Newfieldsįrom the Collections of the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University Alfred Kinsey, Fantastic Art, Firebird, For Vogue, George Platt Lynes, George Platt Lynes and the male nude, George Platt Lynes For Vogue, George Platt Lynes Igor Stravinsky, George Platt Lynes Jean Babilee in L'Amour et son Amour, George Platt Lynes male nude, George Platt Lynes male nude with tattoos, George Platt Lynes male nudes, George Platt Lynes Marc Chagall, George Platt Lynes Maria Tallchief in Firebird, George Platt Lynes Name Withheld, George Platt Lynes Portrait of Alfred Kinsey, George Platt Lynes Self-Portrait, George Platt Lynes Tamara Toumanova, George Platt Lynes Tennessee Williams, Greek classical representations, Harper's Bazaar, history of photography, homosexuality, Igor Stravinsky, Indiana University, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Jean Babilee, Jean Babilee in L'Amour et son Amour, Kinsey Institute, L'Amour et son Amour, Lincoln Kirstein, male nude, male nude photography, male nude with tattoos, Marc Chagall, Marcus Bunya Pressing the Flesh, Marcus Bunyan, Marcus Bunyan George Platt Lynes, Maria Tallchief, Maria Tallchief in Firebird, mythological photography, Name Withheld, New Jersey, New York City Ballet, Newfields, Parisian avant garde, Paul Cadmus, Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait of Alfred Kinsey, Pressing the Flesh: Sex Body Image and the Gay Male, Sensual/Sexual/Social, Sensual/Sexual/Social: The Photography of George Platt Lynes, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Tamara Toumanova, Tennessee Williams, the male nude, the male nude as a photographic subject, The Photography of George Platt Lynes, Vogue, Vogue and Harper's BazaarĮxhibition dates: 30th September 2018 – 24th February 2019Ĭurators: Rebecca Fasman, of the Kinsey Institute, and Robin Lawrence and Anne M. Tags: Alfred Kinsey, american artist, American Ballet, American nude male photography, american photographer, American photography, American portrait photography, and Surrealism, dada, Dr. Categories: American, american photographers, beauty, black and white photography, exhibition, existence, gallery website, intimacy, light, memory, photographic series, photography, portrait, psychological, reality, space, time and works on paper