Vintage gay pic
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While some of the images were taken in photo booths, many others were likely taken by a third party. With time, however, they found plenty—far more than they needed to fill a book.
Following the photography book’s publication in 2020, the images resonated with readers all over the world. And queer people were not allowed to congregate.
Soon these “theater people” would start to formulate a strong community where people were able to be openly gay; they could cross-dress and play with gender norms.
What makes these photos so wonderful is that they are very rare. The collection belongs to Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, a married couple who has accumulated over 2,800 photographs of “men in love” during the course of two decades.
In the 1950s, it was dangerous for queer people to document themselves. As a trans woman, I definitely felt like I was not present in Cherry Grove at that time, but gay men and women were there, carving out space that I get to inhabit today. While the majority of the images hail from the United States and are of predominantly white men, there are images from Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, and the United Kingdom among the cache.
What do images of men in love during a time when it was illegal tell us?
Loving is available in five languages: French, English, Italian, German and Spanish.
Nini and Treadwell hope that the new exhibition—and shows like it in the future—will continue to spread the message that “love is love,” as Treadwell tells the Art Newspaper’s Karen Chernick.
“Love has been around forever,” he adds.
“Loving” is on view at the Musée Rath in Geneva, Switzerland, through September 24.
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What was it like to look at these photos for the first time?
When we started scanning images from the 1950s, we were immediately blown away by joy.
We have a lot of lost history that was thrown away, so these photos from the archives add so much to our knowledge of what gay life was like. There's this idea that before Stonewall, everyone was repressed. When we see them as connected, we feel more whole, and that’s what love is about for many of us anyway.
The book, Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s (5 Continents Editions), is available online.
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This is the time of the McCarthy era and the Lavender Scare, when men couldn't dance with men, women can't dance with women.In one, two men hold up a sign that says “Not married but willing to be.” In another, a shirtless man gives another man a piggyback ride. I felt like, oh my god, I'm looking into the faces of people I know today. “All social classes and ages are represented, from workers to businessmen, including students, soldiers and sailors.”
Many of the photographs were in near-perfect condition when Nini and Treadwell found them, which suggests they were safely hidden away somewhere over the decades.
So far, more than 4,000 such images—all taken between the 1850s and 1950s—have been found.
Now, 400 of these romantic snapshots are on display at the Musée Rath in Geneva, Switzerland, which hosts the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire’s temporary exhibitions. It's easy for us as a newer generation to think they must have just been living in hell — but to look back at these photos, the people in them are happy.
In Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s, hundreds of images tell the story of love and affection between men, with some clearly in love and others hinting at more than just friendship. The identities of the photographers and subjects connected to most of the images are a mystery.
“The pictures adopt the same staging as for heterosexual couples: couples pose at the bow of a ship, on the branch of a tree, at the beach, in the forest and in bed, and they sometimes also simulate a wedding stance,” per a statement from the Musee d’Art et d’Histoire.