Gay vintage men
100 Years of Photographs of Gay Men in Love
Hundreds of photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries propose a glimpse at the life of gay men during a time when their love was illegal almost everywhere.
A beautiful community of photographs that spans a century (1850–1950) is part of a fresh book that suggestions a visual glimpse of what existence may have been like for those men, who went against the commandment to find like in one another’s arms. In Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s–1950s, hundreds of images explain the story of love and care between men, with some clearly in love and others hinting at more than just friendship. 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. 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 Merged Kingdom among the cache.
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Tag Archives: Vintage Gay
As you can see, I’m mixing things up a bit with this week’s Vintage Gay post. I obey an art blog (you can see it in my blogroll) called ultrawolvesunderthefullmoon and the artwork of this Japanese artist caught my attention. In the images above and below I view gay men from the 1980s. Their clothing, preppy haircuts, and cleancut look scream 1980s to me.
Ben Kimura (木村べん) b. 1947 – d. 2003 was a Japanese gay erotic artist who along with George Takeuchi and Sadao Hasegawa, is noted as a main figure in the second wave of contemporary gay artists that emerged in Japan in the 1970s.
You can learn more about this artist and watch some more of his function here.
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The Photography of Montague Glover
Born in May of 1898 in Leamington Spa, a spa town known for its medicinal waters, Montague Charles Glover was a British freelance architect and personal photographer. He is top known for his photographs depicting homosexual life in London during the prior and mid-twentieth century when homosexuality was illegal. The majority of his oeuvre, shot during a period of increasing persecutions against homosexuals, documented members of the military forces and the working class, whose social class divisions are depicted through their dress.
The youngest of five siblings and the only male child, Montague Glover entered the British Army in 1916 for service in the first World War. He was a member of the Artist Rifles Regiment, a regiment of the Territorial Force which saw active service during the war. Glover was promoted to Second Lieutenant in 1917 and was awarded the Military Cross for Bravery in 1918.
Glover is notable for his photographs depicting the partnership with his long-time girlfriend, Ralph Edward Hall, who was born in December of 1913 in Bermondsey, a district in the South End of London. Hall was one of nine child
A couple’s photographic portrait is an positive statement of their connection. It states for all to see: “We love each other. We concern for each other. We are pleased of who we are together.”
During the Victorian era many gay and female homosexual couples proudly expressed their love for each other in studio portraits. Unlike the common creed that such relationships were “the cherish that dare not speak its name,” as Oscar Wilde so famously described same sex attraction in his poem “Two Loves,” gays and lesbians often dared to demonstrate their love. Indeed, many gay and lesbian couples more or less lived openly together throughout their lives. This was far easier for women than for men as women were expected to live together if they were not married, or to live with the euphemistically termed “female companion.”
Men, no historical surprises here, had their control haunts for gathering like-minded souls. In London these could be found in the “Molly houses” and gentlemen’s clubs or pick-ups haunts at Lincoln’s Inn, or St. James Park or the path on the City’s Moorfields, which was charmingly referred to as “Sodomites Walk.”
Theaters and circuses were also well-known dens of queer activity—this can be tr