Splash Day

Staying out of doors for the moment, there is an annual event that takes place on the last weekend of May at a place called "Hippie Hollow" on Lake Travis near Austin, Texas.  Hippie Hollow is a (quasi) legal nude beach, and on this weekend thousands of gay men descend for fun in the sun, and a 48-hour no-holds-barred party ensues.

The difference between these revelers and the sunbathers on the Paris quai (June 8, June 9, 2011) is that these bathers know they're being watched, and glory in it, at once attainable and oh so unattainable.

I wrote a play, "Last Splash!", which played to full houses in two productions in Houston.  I made the mistake of taking it to Austin on Splash Day Weekend and lost my shirt.  No one wanted to leave the Hollow.  Lesson learned.

The model for the program photo was an actor who played in the production.  More of him later.



Paul, Von Gloeden Figure

Another in a series.  I have always been fascinated by the Baron Von Gloeden (If you are not familiar with him, Google "Von Gloeden"). 

He was photographing the male nude at a time and place where it was unacceptable; even illegal, but he persisted, cloaking his models in an air of "antiquity" in the vain hope that they would become respectable.

He remains something of a mystery, and his motives are still somewhat suspect.  After all, he did sell his images, under the counter,  to a "certain" clientele, posing his little Sicilian boys in decidedly homoerotic attitudes.  He also chose his models for their obvious endowments.

Since I recently had the opportunity to see a collection of his original prints at the Kinsey Institute, I feel I have new insight into his work.  In image after image, his personal enjoyment of what he was doing shines through; the passion is there for anyone to see.



Academic figure

Another in a series of images based on the idea of "Academy" figures - nudes taken very early in the history of photography, meant to provide examples of classical poses for art students.  Of course, as in every mode of pictorial representation man has devised, from cave paintings to the internet, the nude was one of the first subjects produced.  The "Academy" images protected the photographer from prosecution, but many of the images produced were little more than pornography; especially the female nudes.  There was also a booming market in outright porn, in the form of couples photographed in the act.  In view of the excruciatingly slow exposure times, it must have been a challenge for all concerned, but they rose above it.

The stigma of producing nudes, especially male nudes, still rears its head in our "enlightened" age, when we go out of our way to describe our work as "Fine Art" nudes - code for "respectable".

The model here was a close friend and neighbor, and a delightful model, always ready for anything.

The medium is black and white film.