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Monday, February 3, 2020


The style and posing of this photo immediately made me think of Les Demi Dieux,
but it isn't included in any of the recognized collections of that marque. Also, being slightly 
out of focus doesn't fit with Danny Fitzgerald's meticulous technical standards.
Edited to add:  Helpful viewer UtahJock says in the comments that this is
"Kent on Slice" by Arthur Tress from 1979.  Thanks!

13 comments:

  1. Wow, what a photograph! I wonder what the circumstances were behind this? It definitely looks outdoors, it's obviously a childrens slide (?) and the photographer's view point is above the model.The shadows, the silvery sheen of the slide, the models pose and lean but muscular body are beautiful! As you say, it's too bad the focus isn't sharper, but this doesn't detract from the originality of this photo. Thanks for posting this!

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    1. You're quite welcome. I just realized that it may have intentionally been made out of focus, but that's just speculation.

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  2. Personnellement, je trouve cette photo assez morbide. J'ai l'impression de voir un cadavre que l'on aurait déposé dans un toboggan et qui glisserait lentement...
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    Personally, I find this photo quite morbid. I have the impression to see a corpse which one would have deposited in a toboggan and which would slide slowly ...

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  3. This photo is by Arthur Tress, ''Kent on Slide'', from 1979.

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  4. Thanks, UtahJock, for identifying this photo. I've been aware of Arthur Tress' work for years. Mapplethorpe casts such a huge shadow that many gay contemporaries of his also working in photography have not gotten the attention that they might deserve.

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    1. Arthur Tress' work straddles the 1975 vintage cutoff date I use for the blog, but his work is so excellent that he merits a partial exception. Look for a Tress 1970-80 series in the coming weeks.

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    2. Hi Jerry. He did a series of photographs of men and machines that he published in a book titled "Machinations". And in the early to late seventies he took a number of photographs in the old abandoned piers on Manhattan's west side. These piers were famous (and notorious) for gay cruising for anonymous sex.

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    3. I've seen some of those pier photos, but didn't know they were his. Thanks!

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    4. But to be clear, the photos he did on the piers were staged by him. I.e. a well known one of a naked, bearded young man sitting in debris holding a cardboard cutout of Superman! I could be wrong, but I believe that this was done there, among others. Of course, Arthur would know for sure!

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    5. Thanks for the clarification. I have the superman photo and at least one other that I think might be his from that location. Others I have seen look more like snapshots, and the quality level is all over the place.

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