This extraordinary book documents a fascinating moment in the history of American culture--a period in the 1930's, 40's, and 50's that gave birth to new notions of male beauty and desire, and to a new type of male icon. Long before Stonewall and the gay pride movement, there was a small group of daring men--both photographers and the models who sat for them--who helped pave the way for male sexual liberation. Led by the photographer George Platt Lynes, the painter Paul Cadmus, and the arts patron Lincoln Kirstein, this group shattered taboos surrounding the artistic presentation of the male figure. The young subjects of these photographs--who often posed after-hours in studios officially used for fashion shoots--were in essence the first true male models. In a perfect complement to the intimacy of these early nudes, photographs are included of these men today. The pictures and stories in Naked Men are as relevant and evocative today as they were a half a century ago.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The male nude has been a staple of art since the Greeks graced their public buildings with the glorified forms of gods and heroes. Renaissance artists didn't hesitate to display the male form, particularly in churches; the past 100 years of photography have seen a resurgence of the male nude. Nonetheless, until now there's been very little critical analysis of these nudes' homoerotic content. In his Lambda Award-winning Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955, David Leddick uses intensive research, interviews, and photographic representations to uncover sources and inspirations for the male nude through 20 years of contemporary art. Relying on the words and visual work of hundreds of artists, models, and writers (including George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Tennessee Williams, and Gore Vidal), Leddick conjures up the images, history, and social context of the mid-20th-century homoerotic nude. Filled with photos and reproductions, Naked Men shows us how gay sensibilities and gay culture have freed the male body from social restraints in both art and everyday life. Leddick's The Male Nude, while not strictly a companion volume, does similar work, detailing more than a century of male nudes. As with Naked Men, this book is lavishly and beautifully illustrated. Both are important documents of gay male history and culture. --Michael Bronski
Review
"What a wonderful, fascinating book! . . . A trip into the past . . . a lot of my old friends, young and nude."--Francesco Scavullo
"This book combines stories and photographs of the men who did it first. It's like a buried treasure one only finds 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.--Bruce Weber
"This book combines stories and photographs of the men who did it first. It's like a buried treasure one only finds 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.--Bruce Weber
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful, but less than meets the eye,
By
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This review is from: Naked Men : Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955 (Hardcover)
David Leddick's "Naked Men" is a most unusual collection of nude photography. Leddick's expressed intent is to chronicle the early history of photographing unclothed men, and he sets about it in two divergent ways. The narrative centers around the photographer George Platt Lynes (1907-1955), the creator of many of the photographs reproduced in the volume, and his circle of like-minded friends in early twentieth-century New York, including the artist Paul Cadmus (still living), and the recently deceased arts impresario Lincoln Kirstein.Although the pictures of course hold a strong homoerotic appeal and many of the subjects were romantically and physically entwined with their photographers and each other, the book is not a gay history. In fact, there is not enough history included in the text, which is framed by large expanses of blank page and ceases for much of the book. The inclusion of brief histories and present-day, or at least more recent, photographs of the models is Leddick's second main innovation, and is indeed effective--the juxtaposition of the men in their youthful beauty and their serene, still handsome older selves offers surprising, often moving revelations to the viewer and reader. Yet here again, one wishes that more of them were allowed to speak for themselves. The photographs included are large and beautifully reproduced (a eye-popping highlight is one of a very young Yul Brynner), but it is downright churlish to offer a smoldering picture of a half-undressed Jack Fontan, state that it is "one of a series of photos in which the subject performs... a striptease until he is fully unclothed," and then not show any more! In short, this is a book that, overall, has an effect exactly like many of its photographs--it tantalizes, but in the end leaves one a bit unsatisfied.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blew my mind,
By joani (virginia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Naked Men : Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955 (Hardcover)
If you appreciate male nude photography and history you can't help but love this book. It's a reminder me that these beautiful men were the one's who were the Davids of their day.I love the juxtaposition of the beauty of then and the beauty of now. Makes me look at people older than me in a new way. The beauty we lose and the beauty we keep. Very nostalgic! Plus Yul Brenner naked is a wonderful thing! Joani
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Naked Men by David Leddick,
This review is from: Naked Men : Pioneering Male Nudes 1935-1955 (Hardcover)
This book is fascinating if macabre. Seeing these one-time beauties, after age has ravaged them for forty years, is a humbling experience. However, do not confuse this author's writing with scholarship. I counted over 25 factual errors in the first 10 pages of his essay. Also, the selection of photographs is often poor. Better nude images exist for many of the models featured in this book.
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