Vintage images reflect friends, possibly lovers (entry in ed_grover's and Stephen_Murray's Gay Pride Write-Off)
Written: Jun 23 '01 (Updated Jul 02 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: interesting variety of photographs, mostly American or European, from 1850s-1950s
Cons: Almost no historical or biographical context, although to some readers that's good.
The Bottom Line: The sub-title's emphasis on "male couples" is misplaced. This collection of photographs is intended to demonstrate various male friendships that have been documented in photographs.
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| eplovejoy's Full Review: Affectionate Men Books |
Affectionate Men is a book of more than 80 vintage photographs of men, some of whom may have been lovers and others who almost certainly were not. The book has no captions and just a brief introduction, so flipping through it could take just a few minutes. Or reading it could take several hours, if your imagination is engaged and you create your own stories to match the pictures.
Two fully clothed men together in bed in a photograph from Germany from around 1914 could be preparing to consummate their affection. They pose with bottles from which they appear ready to pour alcoholic beverages, so perhaps they are celebrating a consummation they've already completed. Or maybe they are friends or brothers and they are under the covers together only to stay warm.
Two men in another photograph, this one from the United States around 1910, clasp hands as they stand together behind a prop wishing well. One appears to be about 20 years older than the other so perhaps they are father and son. Or they could be a couple in a May-December romance.
Affectionate Men, compiled by Russell Bush and designed by Ron Lieberman, encourages such speculation. The book's lack of biographical detail about the men in the photographs is either its greatest strength or its worst weakness, depending on your interest in filling in the blanks. We see the men and make inferences about their lives from how they are dressed and where they are posed. We can read into their looking at each or not and their touching each other or not all manner of familiarity, from friendships to romantic and even physical love. But we cannot know for sure.
All we can know is that they were photographed together. In some cases, this is enough to suggest they might have been more than friends. In the mid-19th century, for example, being photographed involved considerable expense and effort, plus patience to sit for a daguerreotype image that took several minutes to develop. Two men who invested all that to document their being together might have had almost any reason, but love seems the most likely.
But the ease with which snapshots could be made a century later makes it less likely that it would take an exceptionally strong bond to motivate the undertaking. Almost anything more than passing acquaintance could be documented in the images from the 1950s, especially in the photographs that show groups larger than couples. And this uncertainty is precisely what Bush wants to represent. In his introduction Bush is influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman as he concludes, "This book is an homage to an affection that has endured and will endure for all time--a record of the emotional closeness of men, regardless of their sexuality. It is a celebration of a man's love for his chosen comrade."
That love, possibly but not necessarily romantic, is reflected in more than 80 photographs spread out over more than 100 pages. Most are from the United States, although many are from such other nations as France, Sweden, Japan and South Africa. Most of the men photographed are white, although the inclusion of many people of African, Asian and other ancestries gives the book a diversity that is lacking in, say, the United States Senate.
Most of the photographs are presented without adornment, although some of the pages have design touches provided by Lieberman. A picture from England in the 1890s, for example, shows two men in formal wear and top hats standing arm-in-arm and the photograph in the book is resting on a pair of white gloves with a jeweled stickpin. Elsewhere, a pair of photographs lie next to an envelope with a multi-colored interior, although neither photograph could fit in the envelope without being folded. The decorative flourishes never detract from the photographs, but they aren't vital to appreciating them either.
What is vital is a spirit that is romantic in the fanciful sense. If you are like Bush and photographs of strangers captivate you and provide kindling for the fires of your imagination, then you'll find much to appreciate in Affectionate Men. But if you like your coffee table books to demand a little less interpretive effort, you might want to try such volumes as Christopher Schwarz' Men Defined: Nudes or David Leddick's Naked Men, Too: Liberating the Male Nude, 1950-2000 instead. The photographs in Affectionate Men are, with one misplaced exception, of men who are clothed.
And cloaked in a little mystery. Do two men who hold each other's hands have to be gay? Is a man whose hand is resting on the thigh of another necessarily that man's lover? It depends. Why is Mona Lisa smiling?
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This review is a contribution to a write-off that is running concurrent with the annual celebration of LGBT culture and resistance. The write-off was organized by ed_grover and Stephen_Murray.
Argonut created our Web Page, which has links to all participants and is located at: http://mynook.com/writeoff/?WID=1
Please join us in reading the entries of the fine writers listed below:
AdaDavis, Bleuchance, ed_grover, erik_kosberg, frazzledspice, hadassahchana , hashal, Howard_ Creech, hvojr, jiahong, jkkelley, juliette, kamau, kuuleimomi, lernerj, lustylady, Macondo, mangiotto, Mr.Eyore, MrsNormanMaine, MuseMelpomene, NFP, naphtalia, nobody_knows, pageclot, phineaskc, prettyinpink, psychovant, ricardo_ramos, Sordid-1, Sloucho, solleks, Stephen_Murray, telynor, tlimjoco, Wovengold.
Recommended:
Yes
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eplovejoy
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