If you read Fashion In the 1940s, one name was more than any other name that appeared below its photo: George Platt Lynes. In almost all the questions, he captured portraits of models, such as Lisa Fonssagrives (later Irving Penn’s wife), socialites like Babe Paley, or actors like Burt Lancaster and Joan Crawford wearing the latest fashion. In 1947, the magazine even asked him to lead their West Coast studio. His work was polished, principled and appropriate at a time when society prioritized all polishing, principles and appropriate things.
But Lynes has another more secret aesthetic, exactly the opposite.
On Fire Island, he took fashionable forward-looking photos of himself or her nude body. The image is relaxing, vibrant and evocative – though never porn: “They are more about the form of the body,” says James Crump, director of the film, art historian and author of the author George Platt Lynes: Photos of the Kinsey Institute.
exist FashionRyans often turns the camera to wealthy women. But on Fire Island, Lynes focuses on topics like ballerinas or male models, or just attractive men he passes through word of mouth. “I always thought Lynes photographed many men who knew how to fix a car, but the difference was that he made them look like they were going to Yale,” Bruce Weber said of the photographer. Fashionhe used a static bulky camera in the studio. However, on Fire Island, he often embraced stereotypes and natural light. “These photos are easier, more fun, more erotic. Not the formal, elegant images he is known for in fashion.” He found an art community with Paul Cadmus, Jared and Margaret French, a photography series called Pajamas, who together began quietly subverting the notion that gay identity is worthy of capturing in all its beauty, but something that needs to be hidden. (Pajamas also often treat Ryans like models – we include some of their portraits in this article.)
