The Homoerotic Photograph : Male Images from Durieu / Delacroix to Mapplethorpe

By Allen Ellenzweig

Book Overview

Allen Ellenzweig traces the male gaze upon men as captured by the camera throughout the history of photography. More than one hundred striking, provocative duotone photographs reflect a wide-ranging history of photographic male homoeroticism and the spiritual, physical, and intellectual exchange among men. Accompanying these images is a detailed account of the multiple, complex meanings of the homoerotic that have taken shape from the 1850s to today.

Ellenzweig situates each of his artists within their historical context, with chapters devoted to specific photographers and eras. He begins with nineteenth-century French photographer Eug ne Durieu and his studies of the male nude, created under the direction of painter Eug ne Delacroix. He then takes readers all the way through the rebellious 1960s and the disputes surrounding Robert Mapplethorpe's controversial retrospective in 1989 and 1990. Showing that homoeroticism in photography is anything but a contemporary invention, Ellenzweig unites photographers across the stylistic spectrum within a theme that came to inspire a host of larger spiritual, physical, and intellectual ideals.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0231075375
• ISBN13: 9780231075374
• Release Date: October 2012
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Length: 230 Pages
• Weight: 3.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 10.5" x 11.8"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful images!

I first got this book as a present, and thought that it would be a picture book about beefy gym-bodied men with little substance. Upon reading and looking through the book, my impressions were quickly turned around. This book has a wonderful collection of pictures dating back to the 1800s that show how men have been portrayed by various photographers through the years. Some images are very striking and almost appalling, while others accentuate male form. The text that accompanies the pictures is very informative and critical, making the reader think while he looks upon the images. This is a book that I now enjoy returning to in order to see that the male body has so many possible portrayals. I was even impressed to see my own college professor's work in the book!!