Taormina
Sante Fe, NM: Twelvetrees Press, 1997. 3rd Edition. Folio, publisher's photo-illustrated wraps, french flaps.
Third edition of this monograph on 19th-century German homoerotic photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden. Born in Wismar, Gloeden moved to Taormina, Sicily due to poor health. While there he traveled throughout Italy, frequently visiting his cousin Wilhelm von Pluscrow, a commercial photographer who taught him technique. Initially selling his images of landscapes, monuments, and Sicilian citizens as postcards, Gloeden soon became preoccupied with capturing nudes of young men and boys, avoiding the potential consequences by paying his models exorbitant royalties. Most of this work was traded under the table while Gloeden garnered widespread attention internationally for his restrained portraits of the working class. After his death in 1931, thousands of his negatives and proofs that had been inherited by Gloeden’s lover and muse Pancrazio Buciunì were confiscated and destroyed by Mussolini's Fascist police, considered pornographic material. This collection comprises 89 sepia plates, out of the few hundred remaining photos that were exhumed and restored in the late 1970s, with an opening essay by Roland Barthes (translated from the original French by Angus Whyte). Originally published in 1986. Some toning, soiling, and edgewear to wraps. Very good. Item #12208
$75.00