There's nothg like a good gay photo. You n hardly turn around a gallery whout bumpg to a photo that was eher snapped by a queer person or one for a subject: om Calyn Jenner's portra by Annie Leibovz to the provotive works of Robert Mapplethorpe to the geni of Andy Warhol, Cathere Opie, and Pierre and Gill. Maybe there's somethg queer about the photograph, the transformatn om a subject to an object a flash. Or maybe all our years of takg selfi for Grdr prepared for the job. In any se, what mak the gay photo gay is the look levels at the viewer: We are ed to beg seen, but now we n look back.
Contents:
- THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
- BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! LNCH QUEER PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZE
- THE OBSSIVE PHOTOGRAPHER BEHD AMERI’S FIRST GAY MAGAZE
- NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
THE GAY FIGURE ARTISTS ARE REIMAGG THE MALE GAZE
As art holds an sential place the LGBT muny, The Advote striv to she a light on the work of gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr artists who are movg the cultural needle wh the artists spotlight sectn. Disver slishows om gay art opengs across the world wh mediums that range om photographs, to oils, to sculpture, and more. Read terviews and profil of ntemporary artists who portray LGBT history, sex, culture, and polics wh their works. Browse through the artist spotlight and other sectns that celebrate gay culture. * gay photo artist *
Four s ago, the photographer Tom Bianchi began pturg the nearly 10, 000 gay men who every summer flocked to their En a specific part of New York’s Fire Island. Matthew Morroc“This photograph serv as the ver of my photo book, Complic, which tells the story of relatnships wh olr gay men New York om 2010 to 2015. Photograph by Ey Manng“The first gay pri was a rt—not a logo, psule llectn, or rabow Shake Shack l.
BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! LNCH QUEER PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZE
Last week saw the lnch of The Ltle Black Gallery's new queer photography magaze BOYS! BOYS! BOYS!. The llectors edn Volume 1 featur the work of ten photographers om ten untri and adds to the growg BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! art platform "to promote queer and gay photography", which now reprents more than 60 photographers om 24 untri cludg… * gay photo artist *
Photograph by Chris Smh“I remember that some of my earlit self-portras, taken while I was high school and still eply closeted, seemed like the only way that I uld privately exprs and see myself as the gay man that I knew I was. As art holds an sential place the LGBT muny, The Advote striv to she a light on the work of gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr artists who are movg the cultural needle wh the artists spotlight sectn. Disver slishows om gay art opengs across the world wh mediums that range om photographs, to oils, to sculpture, and more.
Browse through the artist spotlight and other sectns that celebrate gay culture. Mart told ESSENCE that part of how she began drawg was to pe the homophobia her environment.
THE OBSSIVE PHOTOGRAPHER BEHD AMERI’S FIRST GAY MAGAZE
mchmen, the se for the drawgs, stori and art of Mchell the gay artist * gay photo artist *
While we were still reverg om him snatchg our edg at the Brooklyn Mm 2015, Wiley beme the first Black openly gay artist to pat a printial portra wh his regal portrayal of Print Obama 2018.
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTWorkg largely outsi the gallery system, a group of illtrators is revivg the disciple and refg how queer bodi are reprented MacConnell, “Ernie” 2014, waterlor and pen on paperLAST FALL, IN a ty apartment downtown New York, a 30-year-old gay physique mol named Matthew Williams stood naked agast a whe backdrop ont of the gay artist John MacConnell.
Over the next 2, 000 years, pturg the naked male form beme an sential artistic skill, one that reached s apotheosis Wtern culture durg the Italian Renaissance, when homosexual sire was subtly exprsed Donatello’s bronze “David” (cir 1440) and Caravagg’s patg “The Micians” (1597), where the tradnal female me is replaced wh a band of boys, partially robed togas, referencg a Greek and Roman perd which homoeroti was a part of society.
NEWLY PUBLISHED PORTRAS DOCUMENT A CENTURY OF GAY MEN LOVE
The dashgly charmg -founr of the Llie-Lohman Mm v si his SoHo apartment—an unbelievable monument to gay creativy and art. " data-reactroot=" * gay photo artist *
Classics profsor Andrew Lear, 59, who now ns Osr Wil Tours, a pany that offers excursns foced on implicly gay art and history major while some old masters fetishized the male body barely d ways, the ia of an openly queer artist exprsg his sir om a queer perspective was only born the last century. Ined, cricism of works like Cadm’s durg an era which homosexualy was still forbidn phed many of the artists to the unrground, om where they’re still beg unearthed today.
(It’s perhaps not cintal that Alan Hollghurst’s latt novel, “The Sparsholt Affair, ” a gay retellg of Bra the 20th century, clus a 1940s-era artist tryg to pursue a classmate at Oxford by drawg his figure.
) Frato, “Tangere” 2016, lored pencil on paper, urty of the artist and Antoe Levi, Paris; Jordan Mejias, “Dare Me, ” 2017, monochromatic waterlor on paper, om the book “Of Art and Men” (Photograph: Hans-Ge Pospischil) © Jordan MejiasIN THE YEARS after Cadm, other gay perspectiv on the male body found their way to visual culture, though they’ve typilly been nsired taboo or hypersexual. And spe the “queer enlightenment” of the 1970s and ’80s, when Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayo and others brought man-on-man sex to the mm, there rema few celebratory imag of openly gay men Wtern visual art. Williams’s afternoon ssn wh MacConnell, fact, is part of a recent revival of male figure drawg among ntemporary gay artists — cludg Kou Shou, Mart Bedolla and Stephen McDermott — who all specialize stripped-down reprentatns of largely young whe men.
Daniel Wenger on Bob Mizer, who found the first gay magaze the U.S., Physique Pictorial, and specialized photographg buff young men. * gay photo artist *
MacConnell and Williams met 2016 at the artist Mark Beard’s drawg salon, which now attracts a rotatg st of about 30 gay artists.
The nus “give gay people their history, ” Beard says. Outled his signature blue pen, ’s a tribute to the sorts of mundane gay moments that are rarely celebrated art or popular culture.
Gay figure artists are followg the homoerotic tradn tablished by Mizer, Fland and the artist Tom Bianchi, whose photographic nus have seen a renaissance after he published “Fire Island P, Polaroids 1975-1983” 2013. ” In “On Send Thought” (2016), the ster’s mcular curv suggt early Roman statuary while ializg gayns the tradn of Cadm’s fabulist etchg “Y. In this, Frato and the other ntemporary gay figure artists share a philosophy, spe their different athetics: They’re all mted to reflectg the mostly unseen terr liv of the men they admire, and to celebratg a diverse set of subjects who, taken together, stand opposn to a nonil history of art that has long ignored an openly gay view of the male body.
Followg the succs of the first issue earlier this year, The Ltle Black Gallery has jt announced the publitn of Volume 2 of s stunng fe art photography magaze dited to queer and gay photography, BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Here The Queer Review previews some of the work clud the magaze. Luiz © Xavier Samre.… * gay photo artist *
Art platform “to promote queer and gay photography”, which now reprents more than 60 photographers om 24 untri cludg Cha, India, Iran, Poland, Rsia, and Turkey where LGBTQ+ rights are reprsed and queer liv are unr threat. “You may ask why do we need a platform and magaze for queer and gay photography”, Ghisla Pasl, -founr and -owner of The Ltle Black Gallery, curator and edor of BOYS! Said, “The simple answer is that queer and gay photography is grossly unrreprented the fe art world, and even more so the mastream media.