The first book of one of the most successful American photographers of the male nude, this collection is culled from more than 30 years of the artist's portraiture of his friends and lovers, highlighting images from his private archive. Regarded by the artist as his most personal and important work, this array combines intimate pictures with handwritten short stories, describing Bianchi's relations and demonstrating his talents as both a writer and a photographer.
Tom Bianchi is one of the most published visual artists and writers in the world.
His nineteen books of photographs, poems, and essays primarily cover the gay male experience in a variety of contexts - from aesthetic philosophy - IN DEFENSE OF BEAUTY - to poetry to erotic photography. He is currently working on an album and stage presentation of some poems being set to song from his book MEN I'VE LOVED.
Tom was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. He got a law degree at Northwestern and practiced corporate law for ten years. At thirty -four he left his position as Senior Counsel at Columbia Pictures, tore up his law degree, pasted it into a painting and had his first one man show with Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss in New York. Shortly thereafter, Tom had his first major museum retrospective at the Spoleto Festival in 1984.
In 1990, St. Martins Press published OUT OF THE STUDIO, Tom's groundbreaking book of male nudes, frankly gay and affectionally connected. That book opened a door for more honest visions of gay men and a better understanding of their intimate lives. Thereafter, nineteen of Tom's books have been published, three documentary films about Tom's work have been distributed, and Tom's work has been published in more than thirty anthologies on the male nude. His ON THE COUCH series, DEEP SEX and EROTIC TRIGGERS deal with the expression of conscious sexual energy. This body of work has earned Tom respect as one of the most important artists dealing with erotic imagery and imagination. His body of work is the largest record ever made by a single artist of a culture's intimate life.
Tom also co-founded a biotech company, CytoDyn, developing a new therapy for treatment of HIV / AIDS.
TOMBIANCHI.com is Tom's website that includes detailed information on Tom and his work. Tom writes a blog which is a showcase for new work and the world as he sees it. The posts are fun, witty and sexy. And for people who want to go behind the scenes there is a huge archive of over 20,000 images with weekly updates in the Members Area.
Facebook: TOMBIANCHIFANPAGE - Here you will find updates on Tom's work and includes photo galleries from shoots as well as Tom's travels around the world.
Twitter: Follow Tom @tombianchi
You can reach Tom directly through all the places above if you are interested in being a subject of his books and films or are interested in collecting Tom's work.
