On This Day

I knew of the tradition of male homoerotic art (Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Hoyningen-Heune, Jean Cocteau, Keith Haring, Tom of Findland, Horst P. Horst), but, incredibly, I didn't know of Baron Wilhelm Von Gloeden, photographer of male nudes, who was born 16 September 1856 near Wismar, Germany. He was a handsome man and has a fascinating biography. Like Thomas Mann, he was from the very northern part of Germany, but was attracted to the south (Italy), moving to Sicily for health reasons. He settled in Taormina,

and died there in 1931. After his death the fascists destroyed three-quarters of the negatives of his photos because they thought they were pornographic.