Showcasing vintage male photography, mostly nude. You must be 18 years of age or older to visit this blog! If you hold a copyright on any material shown on this blog, notify me, and it will be removed immediately.
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Thursday, September 17, 2026
Mel Fillini
Here we have Mel Fillini in Nude Man Framed from 1954. The style here is quite
unlike most of Mr. Lynes's work, and that leaves me wondering if this would
have been a trend in his photos had he survived longer.
I feel like that’s the only photo in the series that spoils the whole thing! I’m 100% on board with the selection if you leave that one out—it’s a fantastic series, Jerry! The best one in a long time!
This is so unlike his entire body of work, it makes me wonder whether it's a photo by Lynes that somebody else cropped and framed and called it "Nude Man Framed".
There are at least six other photos of Mel Fillini with the same framing and far less severe cropping. The others show more visible manipulation of the images for what one presumes was artistic intent. Prints are available for sale online, and some (but not all) of those are listed as copies of items from the Kinsey Institute collection. Another site says they were made in 1993 from original negatives, without saying who held them. If they were original Lynes donations to Kinsey, we can presume that he intended them to be seen this way. I've never heard of any private donations to or acquisitions by Kinsey in latter years, but that does not exclude the possibility.
I feel like that’s the only photo in the series that spoils the whole thing! I’m 100% on board with the selection if you leave that one out—it’s a fantastic series, Jerry! The best one in a long time!
ReplyDeleteI included this because it is so unexpected.
DeleteI wouldn't say it's a "spoiler"; it's nice to see a fancy frame.
ReplyDeleteThis is so unlike his entire body of work, it makes me wonder whether it's a photo by Lynes that somebody else cropped and framed and called it "Nude Man Framed".
ReplyDeleteThere are at least six other photos of Mel Fillini with the same framing and far less severe cropping. The others show more visible manipulation of the images for what one presumes was artistic intent. Prints are available for sale online, and some (but not all) of those are listed as copies of items from the Kinsey Institute collection. Another site says they were made in 1993 from original negatives, without saying who held them. If they were original Lynes donations to Kinsey, we can presume that he intended them to be seen this way. I've never heard of any private donations to or acquisitions by Kinsey in latter years, but that does not exclude the possibility.
Delete