I opened my laptop this morning and linked to my friend Elizabeth’s blog and saw that her post today was about the recent great news she received from a doctor visit. Her MS is beginning to dissipate as the lesions on her brain are shrinking and beginning to disappear. My heart leapt for joy to hear such news as she describes it as getting an early wonderful Christmas gift. Elizabeth is one of the most extraordinary people I have never actually met, because despite having been diagnosed with MS several years back and it completely disrupting her life, she has somehow managed to reclaim her life. She is the mother of two children yet still manages to become a writer. She takes us into the steamy heart of male on male romance, maintain a blog and non-stop helping me with the editing of The Naked Man Project. This is a woman of extreme vision and fortitude to overcome all odds and defy what probably should disable her.
It brings to light how close we become to strangers we have never met except through cyber space and how blogs become the backbone of entering the extraordinary lives of others. What a remarkable place we live in, to be so honored to enter those worlds and to really explore ourselves though other people’s images and words. I was really not a fan of blogs until I began this one because many of them I had looked at followed people that didn’t engage me. I feared in doing my own blog, I would say a lot of meaningless stuff that would also bore everyone else. But, it has brought me to a place of finding myself as I realized I had a lot of life experience to share with others. This blog has connected me to so many remarkable people that now influence and have an impact on my everyday existence, helping me to overcome my own fears and anxieties and recognize my own creative expression. Yet, here is a woman I have met as a stranger, whom I cannot examine the lines of her face, who has so deeply moved me and shared her soul. Her blog also features some of the most extraordinary images of beautiful naked men that stirs yet another part of me.
When I first approached her romance novel EXPOSURE earlier this summer, after it was first published I was a bit skeptical, first of all to read such a thing; it was such a foreign concept to me that a woman could or would write about gay romance. The story was of an aging photographer who falls in love with a beautiful young man with a secret. At first I was a bit threatened that someone might be poking fun at who and what I was. But within the first couple of pages, I was sucked into the story and have to admit some of the sex was quite graphic, even for me. But the story was filled with so much love and heart that I immediately fell in love with Elizabeth’s style and flair for capturing the essence of the relationship, and in a sense helped to renew my own relationship. Then, when I began to understand who this writer really was and her daily struggle with MS, I began to see how much she opened and shared her own heart. Elizabeth today is for you. You are a beacon of inspiration that shines so brightly on my life and gives me strength each day. I could not have done this project without you. Thank you and congratulations!!!!!
There was a time in the 50’s when young men arriving in Los Angles seeking fortune and fame in the film industry were recruited by photographers to be photographed nude or nearly nude for companies like Athletic Model Guild to showcase these young guy’s bodies in the hopes of hiring them for work. It seemed harmless at the time, and the photographs grew into such publications as the Physique Magazine that were adored by a complete male culture as a means of becoming healthy and strong. I recently watched a movie called Beefcake that documented the rise of fall of one particular photographer named Bob Mizer who was eventually brought down and indicted on a charge steaming from a prostitution sting. Looking back at his images they are spectacular, well conceived, well photographed images of beautiful fit young men in the prime of their lives. Many of them becoming classic works of art that have become highly collectable today, with prices ranging to $400 to $1000 plus for a standard 8×10. During that era the post office began to shut down such distribution of these images as being lewd and lascivious. Many of the photographers of this era’s images and negatives were confiscated by the courts and destroyed. Mizer went to elaborate lengths to refine and define this style of imagery that was by nature erotic and arousing for much of the culture and was yet socially acceptable by the general public at large. It became a cultural phenomenon to see near naked men exposed in such ways. This was of course before my time so I was never really exposed to such things. But I do member as a kid seeing the puny weakling on the beach having sand kicked to his face and wanting to become more masculine and strong and the beautiful Adonis you would become and who would be adored by everyone if you subscribed to this sort of ad. I am not even sure what the product was then. I had never really paid much attention to this sort of photography, but now I see the influence it has on my own work and style. Mizer was a man of vision who worshiped and paid such adoring homage to it. He opened his house to lost wayward boys, giving them a sense of dignity and respect. Paid them small sums for posing and gave them a place to stay. Many of them hustled on the side and took advantage of his generosity. But to look back, his artistic vision was astonishing and at the time may have felt or seemed worthless but inspired countless others to pursue the art of men naked. In the end he lost everything and become labeled as a pornographer, but for one fleeting time in our history defined a new adoration of oneself, with dignity and respect becoming a beacon and icon for others to follow. The film Beefcake by Thom Fitzgerald is a delightful film to watch unfold. It is filled with actual images and footage of this era and style, and yes contains lots of nudity mixed with live interviews from some of the models from that time and their perceptions of themselves and how they viewed culturally what was happening. I recently had ordered a book put together by Reed Massengill called Uncovered: Rare Vintage Male Nudes that pays homage to many of these artists, images lost but suddenly recovered. I have been looking at it with a new found adoration for those who have paved our way in this modern era.
The first novel I ever remember reading that had anything to do with male relationships was called Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. I am not exactly sure how I stumbled upon it or exactly when I first read it, but I remember being very young and it left a lasting visual impression in my mind. It’s the story of an American who recognizes his sexual impulse for men. Goes to Europe is about to get married to a woman, but torn by this unspoken desire that seems to hold him back. He can’t quite make the commitment and they separate in order to give him time to think about it. He is in Paris and falls in lust with a young Italian bartender named Giovanni; they have passionate sex in the grungy dark recess of Giovanni’s room for a chapter or so before doubt and self-reasoning set in. I won’t spoil the ending. It was written in 1956 and Baldwin does a fantastic job of vividly bringing you to this era in Paris. In fact I am quite surprised this has never been adapted into a movie, because the story totally lends itself to that sort of format. There are certain images that have haunted my memory for so many years about this book and perhaps it time to pull it back off the shelf for another reread.
