Born On This Day- August 16th... Wolfgang Tillmans

Wolfgang Tillmans has a special feeling for males. In his portrait photographs, he examines them from every angle, indoors & out, in groups & alone, clothed & naked. Sometimes he treats them as objects of desire & other times as objects of curiosity. Despite his camera’s studied distance from its subjects, his photographs read as very personal statements: "Here are the people & the things I like & this is the way I like to see them". This is why I feel so seduced by them." Tillmans brings eroticism to his photographs of fashion, the natural world, city skylines & club culture.

Tillmans moved to NYC in 1994, where he met & fell in love with the German painter Jochen Klein. After moving to England, Tillmans lived with Klein until he died of AIDS-related complications in 1997. When the German born artist was awarded the Turner prize in 2000, the feedback was quite pointed. Tillmans, a mere 32 years old, was the first photographer & the first non-British person to be given the prize. He was known for shooting London's street culture, the rise of Gay Pride, the nightlife of the clubbing generation. He worked for The Face Magazine. The studied authenticity of his photographs was thought of as an exercise in style, slight & understated. Some critics considered Tillmans to not even be an artist.

In 2001, Tillmans was awarded first prize in the competition for the design of the AIDS-Memorial for the City of Munich. In 2002, he filmed the video for Pet Shop Boys’ Home & Dry, composed almost entirely of shots documenting the mice living in the London Underground System.

A decade later, Tillmans is intensely fashionable & internationally acclaimed. He has had museum retrospectives all over the world.

Born On This Day- August 14th... Horst P Horst

More photography. Another gay artist. Horst P Horst & Herb Ritts in the same week is an embarrasment of photographic riches.

I have recently come to the realization that although I would give myself a B- as an artist, I can draw & paint with more skill than most civilians. I can place objects in a space with smart aesthetic judgments, & my gardens have been artful enough to published many times, but I am sad to discover that I am a shitty photogrpher. I have come to believe that photography is like singing, dancing or acting, you can hone your skills, but either ya got it, or you ain't. Appearently, I ain't got it. The Husband does most of the shots that are posted of Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. His eye is keen & his design sense trumps my accidental good shots.

In the history of 20th century fashion & portrait photography, Horst P Horst's contribution is among the most artistically significant & long lasting, 1931-1991. He would become so legendary that like other icons, he would be known by just a single word name. Horst’s work is the epitome, elegance, style & rarefied glamour.

In 1930, he met Vogue photographer Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, & the pair became lovers. He traveled to England with the baron. They visited photographer Cecil Beaton, who was working for British Vogue. In 1931, Horst began his association with Vogue, his 1st photograph in French Vogue was published that year.

Horst had his 1st show at La Plume d'Or in Paris in 1932. It was reviewed by Janet Flanner in The New Yorker, & Horst was made instantly famous. Horst shot a portrait of Bette Davis the same year, the 1st in a series of celebrities he would photograph during his life. In 1932 he photographed: Noel Coward, The Lunts, Cole Porter, & Elsa Schiaparelli.

Horst met Coco Chanel in NYC in 1937. Chanel: “Horst was the queen of the whole thing". He would photograph Chanel’s creations for more than 30 years.

He met Valentine Lawford, a British diplomat in 1938 & they lived openly as a couple until Lawford's death in 1991. They adopted & raised a son, Richard J. Horst, together.

In 1941, The German born Horst applied for United States citizenship, & soon joined the US Army. He became an Army photographer, with much of his work printed in the Armed Forces' magazine- Belvoir Castle. In 1945 he photographed United States President Harry S. Truman, with whom he became friends, & he photographed every First Lady in the post-war period at the invitation of the White House.

In 1947, Horst moved into his house in Oyster Bay, New York. He designed the white stucco clad building himself, the design inspired by the houses that he had seen in Tunisia during his relationship with Hoyningen-Huene.

In the 1960s, encouraged by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Horst began a series of photos of the high society: Consuelo Vanderbilt, Marella Agnelli, Gloria Guinness, Baroness & Baron Philippe de Rothschild, Helen of Greece & Denmark, Baroness Geoffroy de Waldner, Lee Radziwill, the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, Oscar de la Renta, Andy Warhol, Yves Saint Laurent, Doris Duke, Emilio Pucci, Cy Twombly, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, & Paloma Picasso. The articles were written by his partner Valentine Lawford. Until the time of his death, Horst spent most of his time traveling & photographing. In the1970s, he began working for House & Garden magazine as well as for Vogue.

Horst' career can be said to have reached Old Master status when the world's most famous person- Madonna, created her celebrated hymn to classic fashion photography with her single- Vogue in 1990. In the video directed by David Fincher, she posed as a recreation of Horst's most iconic fashion image, a model seen from behind, wearing a partially tied, back-laced corset made by Detolle.

Horst knew & photographed most of the major figures of the 20th century. He died at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, at 93 years of age. A life lived creating beauty & life lived well.

Born On This Day- August 13th... Herb Ritts

"I think knowing people by first names, not by what they do sexually, is really what it's about. Not being afraid. Fear is the enemy. I've always been comfortable with being gay."
Herb Ritts

Herb Ritts is one of my favorite photographers. Photography is a medium that I have a passion for & Ritts was a master. He was a classicist in the manner of the great George Platt Lynes & George Hurrell, but he had a contemporary spin on portraiture & yet none of the settings & color of Annie Lebowitz. I love the work & admire all the artists I have mentioned, along with Helmut Newton & Bruce Weber, but Herb Ritts was a gay man of my generation & his work & subjects speak to me. Interestingly, Ritts was self taught.

Herb Ritts grew up in Beverly Hills with movie stars as neighbors & as a child his neighbor Steve McQueen would take him on rides on the back of his motorcycle. His images celebrated the beauty of the human body, especially the male body & created stylish, unorthodox portraits of celebrities. Ritts gained the same sort of renown as his subjects & he achieved nearly as much fame as those he photographed.

His work graced not only the covers & photo spreads of such magazines as Vogue, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Elle, & Harper’s Bazaar, but also album covers, advertisements, television commercials, & music videos.. Ritts claimed that his success in black & white photography stemmed from a photograph he happened to take of his friend Richard Gere while they were waiting for a tire to be changed in the California desert. That photo was ultimately used for publicity when Gere starred in American Gigolo (1980), & both men’s careers received an enormous boost.

Several anthologies of Ritts’s works have been published: Men/Women (1989), Notorious (1992), Africa (1994), Work (1997) & Herb Ritts (2000). Major retrospectives of his work were held in Boston at the Museum of Fine Arts in 1996–97 & in Paris in 2000.

Ritts was always candid about his own sexuality. He realized that he was gay while he was in college. He soon came out to his parents, who were accepting & supportive. In 1993, he appeared on an NBC special- The Gay 90s. After the special aired he received many letters from gay young people about coming out. Ritts claimed that he never set out to be a role model & said- “you get some of these letters & realize how important it is that there be encouragement for young gay people.”

Ritts died in LA from HIV pneumonia-related complications in December 2002. He was only 50 years old. He left behind his longtime partner Erik Hyman, an entertainment lawyer, & his work.

Narrowing down a few pieces of his work is not an easy task. Go to his website: Herb Ritts & spend sometime absorbing his unique viewpoint.

Richard Gere: "Some photographers embalm their subjects, but he enlivened them."

Born On This Day- July 25th... American Artist Thomas Eakins

self portrait by the artist 1902

I am quite enamored of late the 19th & 20th century American painters & Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins epitomizes everything I love about the American Realist Movement. Eakins was unsuccessful as an artist in his lifetime, but he is thought to be one of the most influential & important figures in American painting. His work is significant for its homoeroticism, & he is noted for his teaching methods, & for his insistence on teaching men & women together, which was ground breaking & controversial at the time.


Eakins was raised & educated in Philadelphia. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, & he spent several years studying in Paris & Spain. He returned to the Pennsylvania Academy to teach in 1876, & became the director in 1882. His teaching methods were controversial at the time, especially his interest in instructing his students in all aspects of the human figure, including the nude. There were tensions between him & the Academy's board of directors throughout his teaching career, he was ultimately fired in 1886 for removing the loincloth of a male model in a class where female students were present.

Deeply influenced by his dismissal, his later painting concentrated on portraiture, usually of friends & family. This work was realistic but with approach that went beyond just pure representation. He was influenced by early photographers & did many photographs as studies, including many nudes. I find this photographic work to exceptional also.

I have a large "coffee table" book of his work that has given me much pleasure. Along with John Singer Sargent & James Whistler his work has been very influential in defining my taste in painting & my passion for art.

photographic study for The Wrestlers

the painting

Born On This Day- June 18th... Berenice Abbott

If you were to click on the label at the bottom of my posts you would discover that I have a very real passion for Photography, whether it is formal portraiture, commercial work, art photography, or found snapshots. I have a sizable & thought provoking collection of vintage photographs of men being affectionate, which I like to share with readers.

My passion for photography + my keen interest in architecture brings me to today’s birthday- Berenice Abbott. Abbott was a celebrated photographer of NYC architecture. She shot using a Century Universal Camera which produced 8 x 10 inch negatives; this large format camera was the instrument that Abbott used to photographed NYC with diligence & attention to detail. Her work has provided an historical chronicle of many now destroyed buildings & neighborhoods of Manhattan.

Abbott by Man Ray 1925

Abbott by Hank O'Neal 1979

During the Great Depression, Abbott was hired by the Federal Art Project (FAP) as a project supervisor for the Changing New York project. She would take the photographs of the city, but had assistants to help her both in the field & in the office. This arrangement allowed Abbott to devote all her time to producing, printing, & exhibiting her photographs. By the time she resigned from the FAP in 1939, she had produced 305 photographs that were added to the collection at the Museum of the City of New York.

Self Portrait 1937

When she first arrived in NYC, Abbott shared an apartment in Greenwich Village with writer Djuna Barnes, philosopher Kenneth Burke, & literary critic Malcolm Cowley. She pursued journalism, but soon became interested in theater & art, inspired by her friends Eugene O'Neill & Man Ray. Abbott first became involved with photography in 1923, when Man Ray, looking for somebody who knew nothing about photography & would do as he said, hired her as a darkroom assistant at his portrait studio in Montparnasse. Abbott: "I took to photography like a duck to water. I never wanted to do anything else." Ray was impressed by her darkroom work & allowed her to use his studio to take her own photographs.

In 1935, Abbott fell in love & moved into a Greenwich Village apartment with the art critic- Elizabeth McCausland. They were a couple for 30+ years until McCausland's death in 1965. In the early 1960s Abbott & McCausland traveled US Highway # 1 from Florida to Maine, with Abbott shooting the small town & automobile-related architecture. The project resulted in more than 2,500 photographs. Not only was Abbott a photographer, but also an inventor & innovator. She developed the distortion easel, which created unusual effects on images developed in a darkroom, & the telescopic lighting pole, known today by photographers as an "autopole," to which lights can be attached at any level.

Shortly after McCausland’s death, Abbott underwent a lung operation. She was told she should move from NYC because of the air pollution. She bought a rundown house in Maine, remaining there until her death in 1991. Abbott continued to work after her move to Maine. Her last book was A Portrait of Maine in 1968.

Goings On At Post Apocalyptic Bohemia

North Portland is the 5^th quadrant of Portland, sometimes dubbed the “forgotten quadrant.” Considered by most citizens to be sketchy & unpleasing, those in know recognize NoPo to be the Brooklyn of the most Brooklyn of cities, outside of Brooklyn, NYC. My inner-circle taunts me about my inability to venture out of North Portland.  Since becoming a Stay-At-Home Mom, my universe has deflated to St Johns for the gym, Arbor Lodge for dog walking, Overlook  for friends & my clinic, & of course, Kenton, my neighborhood.

North Portland is a diverse mixture of residential, commercial, & industrial. It includes the Portland International Raceway, the University of Portland, & the massive cargo facilities of the Port of Portland.

NoPo is a peninsula, with the mighty Columbia River on one side & the north flowing Willamette on the other. The confluence of the 2 rivers, at Kelly Point Park, is the end of North Portland & essentially the most northern point of Portland.

The Columbia Slough, a narrow waterway, about 19 miles long, is about 10 blocks from Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. The slough is home to more than 150 bird species including eagles, 26 fish species, otters, beaver, & coyotes.  It is one of the nation's largest freshwater urban wetlands.

Lewis & Clark actually landed & walked around North Portland after learning from Native Americans that the neighborhood was on the upswing, with many gay couples & plenty of fun spot to eat & explore.

My favorite structure in Portland, The Saint Johns Bridge is located in the North Quadrant, as is the Boys’ Fort in my back garden & BOYS’ FORT, The Husband’s retail shop & design studio.

Just to challenge myself, I took the Husband on an adventure, penetrating deep into SE Portland neighborhood of Sunnyside for shopping & lunch. We stopped to spend some time knocking around with The Husband’s buddy- Bret at the Old Portland Hardware, one of the most “Portland” of my city’s retail outlets. Bret constructs & fabricates furniture & lighting from re-purposed materials. He is keen to my vintage photography collection & had held on to some choice pieces just for me. Old Portland Hardware is a special spot that you deserve to check out.

Nothing soothes being unemployed like spending a little money on something you don't need. I was thrilled with the vintage photos that I picked up to add to the collection.

Avedon

"All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth."

Richard Avedon

Self Portrait

What do Jean Genet, Jimmy Durante, Brigitte Bardot, Georgia O’Keeffe, Jacques Cousteau, Andy Warhol, & Lena Horne have in common? They are just a few of the many personalities caught on film by photographer Richard Avedon. For 50+ years, Avedon’s portraits have filled the pages of the country’s best magazines. His stark imagery & brilliant insight into his subjects’ characters has made him one of the most important American portrait photographers.

I am a fan photography, with a special weakness for 20th century photographers. I find myself returning to various images over & over. I have always been captivated by Richard Avedon's ability to tell a story in a deceptively simple photo. I always wanted him to do the cover for my early album from 1970- Candy Coated Codine, Cognac, Consolation & Cowboys.


Avedon was among the first to challenge the conventional boundaries between studio photography & reportage. Some of his portraits: a young Bob Dylan standing in the rain, Marilyn Monroe caught in a vulnerable moment, Andy Warhol & his Factory crew, are the most iconic of the 20th century.

His daring style rejected conventional poses & instead captured both motion & emotion in the faces of his subjects, catching the intrigue in a single honest moment.


From his breakthrough Paris fashion work in the 1950s; his portrait of American counterculture in the 1960s & 1970s; his Reagan era series, with an emphasis on ordinary people living in the western United States; & his portraits of the nation's most influential people, his work live on.

Along with his work in the magazine industry, Avedon has collaborated on a number of books of portraits. In 1959 he worked with Truman Capote on a book that documented some of the most famous & important people of the century. Observations included images of Buster Keaton, Gloria Vanderbilt, Pablo Picasso, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, Frank Lloyd Wright, & Mae West.

In the early 1960s he began a series of images of patients in mental hospitals. Replacing the environment of the studio with that of the hospital ,he could recreate the genius of his other portraits with non-celebrities. The brutal reality of the lives of the insane was a bold contrast to his other work. In the 1980s & 1990s he would mover from his celebrity portraits to a series of studio images of drifters, carnival workers, & working class Americans.


Richard Avedon was born on this day- May 15th, in 1923 in NYC to Russian Jewish parents; he died in 2004 of a cerebral hemorrhage in San Antonio, Texas, where he was on assignment for The New Yorker.

Antony Armstrong-Jones Is Small, But Very Big

When asked once at a party in NYC about the Queen’s health, Princess Margaret replied: “Which one? My sister, my mother or my husband?”

I am a fan of the work of gifted & important photographer, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, or as I like to call him – Lordy Snowdon. He has enjoyed astonishingly active & varied love-life, 2 wives, 2 illegitimate children & a lover's suicide, & several affairs with men. Princess Margaret was initially surprised that her husband had no intention of giving up his rising photographic career. Because Armstrong-Jones travelled around the world to complete assignments, he was often separated from his wife for many months at a time. The Princess was known to do some partying herself.  Princess Margaret:  “When we first met, I thought he was very pleasant but everybody told me that he was queer.”

His official biographer- Anne de Courcy blithely noted: “Tony, though small in stature, was well-endowed. Tony's always been driven by 2 things: work & sex. A day without either was considered a total waste. He was proud of his conquests of both sexes. If it moved, he would have it”

Among his lovers were British interior decorator Nicholas Haslam & another leading interior decorator- Tom Parr, Jeremy Fry, best man at the Royal wedding in 1960 & the Queen Mother's long-serving page- William Tallon, or Backstairs Billy, as he was known in the Royal household. Anthony-Jones would go on to have an affair with buddy- Fry’s wife & father a child with her, while carrying on their affair.

The break-up of Princess Margaret & Armstrong-Jones lasted 16 years, with a great deal of drugs, booze, & bizarre behavior by both parties, such as Armstrong-Jones's leaving lists between the pages of the princess’s book, of "things I hate about you".

Armstrong-Jones was able to use of a hideaway cottage with his lovers, or had assignations overseas on photographic assignments; most people, including the Royal Family, looked the other way.

Armstrong-Jones’s uncle was Oliver Messel, the famous stage designer. Messel would rent an apartment in Venice & would stay with him there during in the summer, bringing a handsome man for each of them including Parr, who was to become head of the fine antiques & design company Colefax & Fowler, now lives with his male partner in France.

Armstrong-Jones has 5 children: wood artist & Christie's chairman Viscount Linley & painter Lady Sarah Chatto, both with Princess Margaret, daughter- Frances, by filmmaker Lucy Lindsay-Hogg, who he married within months of his divorce from Princess Margaret in 1978. They were divorced in 2000 after she discovered that he had a son- Jasper, with Melanie Cable-Alexander, the editor of Country Life, & Polly Fry, a photographer, like him.

In 1996, his mistress of 20 years- journalist Ann Hills, took a lethal overdose of pills washed down with champagne. Police found her suicide message on her answering machine, saying that she was distressed that Armstrong-Jones could not see her over Christmas Holidays. An inquest concluded that she was distressed by her failure to find a lasting relationship.

I have read that Armstrong-Jones had affairs with women & only flings with men & it is easy to understand which ones he thought were less trouble.

Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, turns 82 years old today. He can still get that big thing up, or so my sources tell me.

Armstrong-Jones worked as a photographer using the name- Lord Snowdon.  In the course of his career, he photographed almost anyone of any importance in the fashion & arts world. I remember a shot he did for Vogue, of a model standing among a pile of cars in a junk yard in Queens, New York. Very outre for 1957.

He once photographed Rudolf Nureyev in his ordinary clothes & asked him to remove the handkerchief from his trouser pocket because it looked ridiculous. Nureyev said: "that is no hankie…".  Armstrong-Jones:“I’m not a great one for chatting people up because it’s phony, I don’t want people to feel at ease. You want a bit of edge. There are quite long, agonized silences. I love it. Something strange might happen. I mean, taking photographs is a very nasty thing to do. It’s very cruel.”

This remains my favorite photograph of Princess Diana