| Men’s Games - A Collection
of Vintage Erotic Photographs |
Nicole Canet (Ed.) Jeux d’Hommes. Photographies érotiques clandestines, 1895-1940 Limited Edition of 1000 numbered copies (pp 112), paper, € 34,95 |
| The photographs collected in Jeux d’Hommes
should have disappeared, either hidden, torn or burnt. And yet history has
saved fragments of erotic heresy from destruction and revealed their pugnacious
vitality. |
Anonyme, Triolisme, 1900
Anonyme, Les marins, 1900
|
Nicole Canet continues to work tirelessly on the archeology of desire. She has found, gathered and assembled scattered collections that were meant to arouse the minds and senses of nineteenth and early twentienth century gay men. This collection of original images covers a hundred years of our recent history. Is this repetitive documentation? Are we asked to relish images that are undeniably pornographic? Does Jeux d’Hommes endlessly show the almost unchanging rite of a secret primitive scene? Let’s not rush things lest we miss the key to understanding this book. The importance of this collection is concealed by a subtle presentation of successive and complementary images of gay love. All these photographs belong to a period when erotic self-assertiveness silently sprang up. Anonyme, Jeux de jeunes
hommes au corset et à la robe, 1895
|
With delicate, fixed scenes, with the inevitable use of uniforms, accessories and “positions,” with hackneyed brothel scenes, with the importance of hairstyle, costume and body hair, a strange photographic world gradually came to life. This world rejected the power of morality and the dominant rules of the art of love. Some courageous photographers dared to impose their favourite models, their compositions and their determintion to stage erotic scenes, straightforwardly and very personally. The viewer is imperceptibly but surely taken from innocent fantasies to prurient red-hot all-male games. Frail bodies are seen next to muscular ones. Suddenly, strong erections are no longer the focus of attention. Anonyme, 1900 |
Anonyme, Intimité, 1930 |
Our attention is now aroused by the unforgettable eye of the model. The
smile of those who delightfully consented to be shown caressing each other
will now be eternally remembered. Farther on in the book, a model was photographed
while gazing at his penis as he fell asleep or awoke. No one will forget this
Hell Regained, now rediscovered and boldly presented in the garish light of
our more liberated era.Can this freedom be taken for granted? Will we be able to share the history of our desires in the future? The bright and evanescent universe of the Taormina photographers must not mask other major creations. Anonyme, 1920
|
| The last images in Jeux d’Hommes, created
in the 1930s and the 1940s, no longer reveal the faces of Eros. They only
sing of the cock and the phallus. Almighty Priapus is back! By venturing again into the history of vintage photography, Nicole Canet’s artistic commitment and the accuracy of her choices are once more reaffirmed. 92 photographs. [Adapted from the Introduction by Raymond Martinez] |
Anonyme, 1940 |