That is a big question. For the first time since ancient Greece and Rome, men were admired in the 1930's to 1950's SOLELY for their physical beauty. This was a stupendously shocking concept in America and much of the Western world. Though a majority of gay men and straight women likely wanted to see as much of the male body as possible in the carnal sense, most everyone originally involved in the vintage beefcake movement took the high road, doing what they could to celebrate and admire and take inspiration from the male nude - Artists, photographers, etc. wanted access to photographic images of men they otherwise couldn't see in their small towns and farming communities. The irony of vintage beefcake is that many of the photographers - frequently beset with legal issues for their work - wanted the legal right to take images of adult men to the point of graphic pornography as we know it today, and when this finally became legal in the 1960's and 1970's in the USA, the original vintage beefcake photographers - who often took great pains in the artistic construction of their images - were left behind and forgotten in the wake of the tidal wave of material created by 1000's upon 1000's of photographers and models enthusiastically producing porn as we know it today. Only in the last decade or so have the original vintage beefcake photographers and models been recognized as the tectonic cultural movers and shakers they were, and as people who were truly pursuing art and a love of the male form over the more "clinically explicit" pornographic images.
Love these pics, but i have a question. Were these consider porn in their day if not what was the real purpose behind these photos?
ReplyDeleteThat is a big question. For the first time since ancient Greece and Rome, men were admired in the 1930's to 1950's SOLELY for their physical beauty. This was a stupendously shocking concept in America and much of the Western world. Though a majority of gay men and straight women likely wanted to see as much of the male body as possible in the carnal sense, most everyone originally involved in the vintage beefcake movement took the high road, doing what they could to celebrate and admire and take inspiration from the male nude - Artists, photographers, etc. wanted access to photographic images of men they otherwise couldn't see in their small towns and farming communities. The irony of vintage beefcake is that many of the photographers - frequently beset with legal issues for their work - wanted the legal right to take images of adult men to the point of graphic pornography as we know it today, and when this finally became legal in the 1960's and 1970's in the USA, the original vintage beefcake photographers - who often took great pains in the artistic construction of their images - were left behind and forgotten in the wake of the tidal wave of material created by 1000's upon 1000's of photographers and models enthusiastically producing porn as we know it today. Only in the last decade or so have the original vintage beefcake photographers and models been recognized as the tectonic cultural movers and shakers they were, and as people who were truly pursuing art and a love of the male form over the more "clinically explicit" pornographic images.
ReplyDelete