Gay photographer famous
NOWNESS
For over three decades photographer Tom Bianchi has been capturing the same-sex attracted male experience in America. Best known for his manual Fire Island Pines: Polaroids 1975-1983, a series documenting the gay community that took sanctuary in the New York enclave—and the hedonistic activities that made it famous—Bianchi’s work abounds with images of tanned and toned nude male forms.
“Bianchi and his peers took to Fire Island as a safe haven from a disapproving world”
But the California-based photographer's life hasn’t always been a year-round holiday. Growing up in Middle America, he and his peers took to Fire Island as a safe haven from a disapproving world. At the age of thirty four, having spent ten years practising law, the documentarian tore up his degree and, with a Polaroid camera in hand, embarked on his new being as an artist.
Following the the Aids epidemic in the 1980s, which saw Bianchi lose his partner and many friends, he became active in the fight against the disease, co-founding a biotechnology company and working on the maturation of Aids medication.
Here, director Barbara Anastacio takes us into
His work was included in one of the first exhibitions to showcase photography at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932, and he showed at the extremely trendy Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. His photographs for Vogue and Bazaar, his shots of dancers at the School of American Ballet and his portraits of some of the most important artistic figures of his era were lauded for their creative use of lighting, props and posing.
But in his view, his most essential works were his nude photographs of men. Yet during Lynes’ life, not many even knew of their existence.
Because of prevailing attitudes toward homosexuality, which included criminalization and strict obscenity laws, Lynes – himself a gay man – had to hold this incredibly leading and important body of work disguised away.
These nuanced photographs of the male form ended up sparking a friendship between Lynes and Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, the founder of the Institute for Sex Explore, later renamed the Kinsey Institute, at Indiana University. Upon his death, Lynes gifted over 2,300 negatives and 600 photographs to the Institute for Sex Research.
The dynamic between Lynes’ commercial and fine art photographs, along with the relatio
Robert Mapplethorpe: From suburbia to subversive same-sex attracted icon
Witness programme, BBC World Service
Thirty years ago the controversial American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe had a major exhibition at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. It contained several of his trademark explicit shots of nudes - and it was confirmation that despite or because of the controversy, he'd become a luminary of the art world.
A scant months later he was dead.
Mapplethorpe set out to shock America - yet his sister Nancy recalls a 'totally ordinary childhood' just outside Unused York.
Nancy Rooney has spent almost all her life on Long Island. As Nancy Mapplethorpe she grew up in Floral Park, the neighbourhood on the fringes of Novel York City which her parents moved to in 1949.
Nancy was the first of six children. "My brother Robert was only small when we moved to a brand new property on a identity new block. We did what fresh kids did in the early 50s: we jumped rope and played stickball and marbles. It was a totally ordinary childhood."
"Our father Harry was considerate of strict and he worked as an engineer at Underwriters Lab
Ricardo Yan II: A Young Gay Photographer's Journey
Discovering one’s manner in photography can be a lifelong journey. From the first snap you take, you include endless possibilities of the thoughtful of photographer you want to be and the subjects you want to capture.
Ricardo Yan II is best known for taking photos of the male figure and capturing the underground queer parties of Manila – taking inspiration from the nightlife photos of Studio 54. Today we talk to him about how a formal education in photography has influenced him and his plans for the future.
Can you tell us about yourself and how you started shooting on film?
I’m Ricardo Yan II, a photographer based in Manila, Philippines. My interest in photography started 14 years ago in grade six when we had a project called “photograph your friends.” I then used my grandfather's point-and-shoot camera to perform that project so I predict I could say that I started shooting film at that time and later on became interested in shooting portraits.
Your college major was photography. How did this education affect you going forward in photography?
Studying photography at the College of Saint-Benilde has broadened my horizons i