Christmas Eve with George Platt Lynes

I'm giving myself an early Christmas present by putting together a series of

 George Platt Lynes' work.  We start with a fairly edgy photo of Neel Bate from 1954.

It's either bondage or another take on St. Sebastian.

 

Isamu Noguchi

Chicken wire was used to produce this interesting effect 

in Lynes' photo of artist and landscape architect Isamu Noguchi.

 

Herbert Bliss

This shabby hallway was used by Lynes several time,

and George Bliss appears there this time.

 

Jean Cocteau and Marcel Khill

George Platt Lynes often used this director's chair in his portrait work.  You'll see it twice more in today's series.  Here we have Jean Cocteau in it.  Lynes took several photos of the French artist.

This is a Lynes photo of Maurice Khill (1912-1940) who was a promising young film director and Cocteau's lover from about 1932 until his death.  Maurice was killed on the Alsatian Front in World War II because due to poor communications his unit counterattacked without knowing an armistice had been arranged.  That communications issue is a big reason the French lost the war.

 

Group - 1940

I only have IDs on two of these four men.  That Charles "Tex" Smutney 

at lower left before he bleached his hair, and Louis Forns with his arms extended.  

I feel like I should recognize the cross legged model, but I don't.  Anyone?

 

Robert McVoy

A simple, but effective, pose does the job in this undated Lynes photo of Robert McVoy.

 

Charles "Buddy" Stanley

This is Charles "Buddy" Stanley from 1941.  His best know modeling work with Lynes 

was a striking series with Tex Smutney in which the two had peroxided their hair.

 

Virgil Thomson and Maurice Grosser

This is Lyne's 1936 portrait of groundbreaking American composer and author Virgil Thomson, 1896-1989.  Mr. Thompson and his lifelong lover Maurice Grosser, 1903-1986, lived for decades at the Hotel Chelsea in New York where they held a salon of gay glitterati of their era.  Thomson induced Gertrude Stein to write the libretto for his opera Four Saints in Three Acts, and Grosser would take Georgia O'Keefe riding on the back of his motorcycle.  Quite a pair, but I can't find a picture of the two together.  This is a photo of Mr. Grosser by Carl van Vechten, whose work has appeared here:

 

1936

"Platt Lynes - 1936" was the only information that came with this photo.  It's quite good, 

despite the grainy scan, and the model seems to be stepping off a mirrored surface.

 

Jack Fontan

A dreamy Jack Fontan against a sky-like background is nice 

counterpoint to all the nude poses he did for Lynes.

 

Fred Danieli

Closing out our Christmas Eve set of George Platt Lynes photos with this one 

of Fred Danieli.  The dark and light contrast are trademark Lynes.

 

Military masses in the water

Today's series features military men in bodies of water.

We start with some World War II Germans.

 

Unknown

This was listed as "Soldiers" on a military themed resale web page,

but no date or nationality was given.  Looks World War I to me.

 

Poles

This happy group is Polish, and the photo was made by Witczak Witaczynski in 1931.

This group appears to be on a recreational swim rather than getting a bath.

 

Americans

All I know about this one is that they are American GIs bathing in a mountain stream.

 

Washing

My source said these are German WWII soldiers washing themselves and their clothes.

I wish the big guy at left had taken his pants off like nearly all the others.

 

New York Week, Day 7 - Earle Forbes

Well, when it came to the last slot in my New York week posts, I had to chose between Edwin Townsend and Earle Forbes, both excellent photographers.  I went with Mr. Forbes because I had more high quality photos by him than Mr. Townsend, who will get a future standalone popup set.

 

Estate sale item

My collection of Earle Forbes photos was recently expanded thanks to an on-line auction estate sale.  This is the first of three images from the group in today's series.

 

Dan Lurie

I'd love to know what happened to the uncovered version of this photo of Dan Lurie 

with a drawn on posing strap.  Mr. Lurie famously said of Earle Forbes,  "Yes, quite a few 

of us posed nude for Earle.  We knew he was pitching those to gays on the side, but we 

didn't really mind because he did great work and got guys into the best magazines."

 

Trio

This trio is from a group of photos Earle Forbes did of groups of nude men in sports scenes.

I mistook another of those for an FKK nudist picture earlier this year.