#homoerotic

An intensely erotic, seductive portrait of the captivating Carlo, looking both utterly easily relaxed, and provocative - the angling of his hips and raised arm playing in his own hair, he seems to be proudly displaying that lovely body and inviting admiration. Do take a moment to view this full size, it’s an unusually large image and really something when you see him up close - those sultry dark lashes on closed lids, long lean curves, he’s beautiful from the ends of his curled fingers to the tips of his toes!

This is a perfectlyinnocent picture of two wrestlers. Amazing how homoerotic things can appear when taken out of context and sandwiched between some nice early pornography, heh.

One of the better-known and most beloved pornographic photoshoots from the Victorian era - two beautiful boys in stockings, flouncy petticoats, a wonderfully ill-fitting black corset, and wearing flowers in their hair. (For further shots, see here)

I know, I have posted this marvelous photograph before, but this copy is larger and fractionally less cropped, and I only need an excuse as thin as that white frilly petticoat to reblog anything from this photo set again!

Delighted to discover a sixth picture of this young man, my favourite of Vincenzo Galdi’s splendid Italian models, with his intensely erotic sensual poses, handsome face, and beautiful body, he really does make the perfect model for inspiring both aesthetic appreciation and homoerotic lust. He would be the poster-boy for my collection was I not already so enamoured of the pretty little Victorian with flowers in his hair!

So many vintage photographs of two male sitters appearing intimately linked may be nothing more than platonic affection between friends or relations, but in this case they are undoubtedly lovers, as we know exactly who they are for a change, famous faces indeed!

queering:

Oscar Wilde; Lord Alfred Bruce Douglas by Gillman & Co.
silver gelatin print, May 1893
(via National Portrait Gallery, London)

How I wish more of von Gloeden’s photographs included the name of the model, just knowing he was called Pietro makes him come alive and feel a very real person - captured for all time, handful of hanging roses and posed poised on the step, one moment in a life we know nothing else of. 1904, Italy.

Oh, why not, let’s have some more vintage soldiers being sweet. WW1 British by the look of the uniforms, though I’ve not seen that kind of gaiters before so perhaps they’re not. The standing fellow has a very handsome face!

Having a slight military theme tonight, it appears - here’s one soldier, one sailor, and a lot of charming affection between the two of them. 1910

1910 male nude with a sword and a quite beautiful bottom.

Their somewhat glum expressions are more than made up for by the lovely hand-tinting to give a colourized effect to the back and white photograph. 

Utterly charming but with a hint of the bizarre, one model wearing an extraordinary translucent and faintly striped dress which reveals as much as it hides. 

No.1428 in Wilhelm von Gloeden’s catalogue of beautiful pictures.

A second gorgeous, deeply homoerotic Galdi photograph from a matching pair (perhaps, we might hope, from a larger set with further delights still to be discovered), the first to be seen here. Again one young man of outstanding natural beauty lies in languid abandon, displaying his masculine perfection with a certain shameless confidence, while his more modest companion looks on in quiet admiration.

Three handsome young men pose for Wilhelm von Gloeden in the late 19th Century, their expressions transforming this into something uniquely beautiful, and open to interpretation - innocent platonic affection, or lustful longing? The boy on the left certainly seems to lean toward the latter.

I had just begun to consider what I might post to mark our reaching the pleasantly amusing total of 3,333 followers, when there happened a veritable flood of new attention overnight, and I find we now sit at a quite remarkable 3,435 already! So now my intended theme of trio photographs is a little inaccurately placed. Welcome, new readers, nonetheless!

A gorgeous, glorious photograph credited to von Gloeden, a fine young man stretched out languidly to bask in the sun, so seductive and so evocative, you can almost feel the heat on skin and hear the hum of summer insects as he lounges there, so long ago but still so beautiful before our eyes. Look closely, for the mole right by his nipple - they should not only be called beauty marks when they show upon the face.

Another sumptuous photograph by Vincenzo Galdi, always making the extra effort to dress his sets most wonderfully with richly detailed fabrics, furs, and striking foliage behind. Their poses have a charming casual air, here, almost an off-duty moment as they relax before the camera.

One of the most elegant, captivating war portraits I’ve ever seen, such a graceful but intimate pose - whether they were a couple or just affectionate brothers, cousins or close friends, there’s a lot of protective, loving posessiveness in the way they’re holding eachother, and you can’t help but hope they both survived the troubled times to come.

To make up for his lack of experience, Gekko Hayashi set up a telephone hotline at his workplace to hear gay men’s stories and give consultation. He would then illustrate and retell these stories. ~100 pages of “Gekko Theater” included in “The Delight of Boys Love & Masculinity” book. Available for purchase at akatako.

A very prolific artist, Gekko Hayashi completed about 20 artworks per day at the height of his career! A pioneer of the BL (boys love) manga genre, “The Delight of Boys Love & Masculinity” includes a JP/EN profile of the artist. Available for purchase at akatako.

From “The Delight of Boys Love & Masculinity” by Gekko Hayashi a.k.a., Gojin Ishihara. His career started in sci-fi, fantasy, and monsters but in the mid 1970s he discovered homoerotic art and changed focus (even though he was a heterosexual man). Book includes 275+ artworks. Available for purchase at akatako.