A Sense of Family Past
Art Mariano ('The Meaning of Art') put a powerful and moving video my way yesterday - '"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together' (LINK).
As the title suggests, it's a compilation of photographs of gay couples from I guess the Edwardian period up to the end of World War Two - an era when we were much less visible and 'kissing secretly'.
Set to the song 'Secretly', I had the strongest feeling of family past - gays from a broad range of ages and social classes in their (mostly) just being themselves in their everyday lives.
I felt as though I was flicking through an album of small-scale gay social/domestic history - a real pleasure as there is so little of this readily available. The images range from often staid-ish studio portraits to casual snap shots where the subjects and their interactions almost jump out of the photographs.
In no particular order and given that not absolutely all of those in the archive are our brothers ...
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I had a great feeling of brotherhood browsing over this family album of our ancestors - I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Did you end up having any favourites?
Nick, Thank you so much for this post. It is wonderful to see these photos since so much of our history has been erased. Rather that repost any of this material, I will post a link to this on my blog. For some reason, I have been unable to leave comments using my google account and so am posting as anon. Warm Regards, Hem
ReplyDeletehi hem
ReplyDeleteyes, i'm always scrabbling round for pieces of our social history - when i first went to gay bars met a man in his eighties who used to go to the back street gay-oriented tea rooms of sydney in the 1920s - luckily he was happy to speak about those far off times and i plied him with a million questions - such is the pushiness of youth. so glad you liked this little archive as i did, very good to hear from you, best, nick
Nick -- this is a remarkable human document. A magnificent and moving post. Many, many thanks.
ReplyDeleteAll very sweet!
ReplyDeleteI have a big, big lump in my throat, and my eyes are burning a bit. Thank you for this.
ReplyDeleteHow I wish I knew the stories behind all these photos.
Most of the guys look so young!
Hey Nick
ReplyDeleteHave to admit at first I wasn't sure if those were gay couples or just a bunch of guys together, until about maybe the 20th pic or so - lol.
Actually I think #1 was my favorite.
Hopefully all those couples had a good long and happy life
hey rick, yeah, i thought so too, cya
ReplyDeletehey greg
ReplyDeleteyep, as i mentioned in the post i suspect a few over effusive straight guys got caught up in this mix - but there are still plenty of gay guys for fellowship, cya
hi paul
ReplyDeletei suspect i'm over-empathetic - i was really moved by many of the photos and easily entered into their lives - even over the passage of 50-100 years
and yes, it's so hard not to speculate about their lives - and i recall how often writers see such images and suddenly have the germ for a story - guess i'm/we're just frustrated novelists
i loved #1 too - and #8, for the unbridled spontaneous seeming affection
and #53 as i think i've used this as a pick up ploy - can't recall if any such efforts of mine were successful!
hi bob
ReplyDeleteyes, it's a wonderful archive - wish i'd put it together myself - the images plus the music ('secretly') work very well together too
and it's great to see gay out back then, even if in private contexts
hey greg again
ReplyDeletei loved #1 too - you can see my comment to paul for others i loved
take care
Just beautiful Nick. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSweet pics, each is worth a thousand words. Some of these period photos remind me of E M Foster's story Maurice. Favourites are 3, 8 and 9 with #53 as numero uno. Feeding love would make a beautiful poem, story and painting. Thanks for this glimpse into social history. Ciao, Leon
ReplyDeleteFavourites?
ReplyDeleteThat will take some time, but I just had to say thank you.
Thank you so much for this, it made my day especially so as I just discovered that the lady next door will no longer speak to me because she discovered (after four years) that I'm queer.
Nick to the rescue!
Lars
Okay, after deliberation, number 3 because of the coy little smile on the "bottom".
ReplyDeleteNumber 20 was a contender.
Thanks again.
Lars
Nicely done, Nick...cheers,
ReplyDeleteArt
hey art
ReplyDeletethe archive just said 'post me' - glad you like it
cheers
hey lars
ReplyDeletethough there were very many more i didn't post, there are still a lot to work through - i spoend quite a bit of time on each trying to image the lives ebyond the image - time just flew by!
3 and 20 are lovely - both cos the guys seem relaxed and casual
good to hear from you
cheers!
hey leon
ReplyDeletearen't they sweet - and so many suggest the lives beyond the photo - that's extraordinary that you mention 'maurice' as i had the novel in mind too
curiously i like 12 as the guys seem to have screwed up their courage to sit for this rather early formal studio portrait
53 seems so modern - what i've teasingly done mysekf
3, 8 and 9 are great too for me cos the guys are showing each other gentle physical affection and intimacy, and seem comfortable doing so - a sense of release from the strictures of everyday life back then in a straight world
curiously i image stories fro so many of them, as writers ger inspiration from poems, pictures and so on
good to hear from you, ciao, nick
hey ken
ReplyDeleteyep, they're a beautiful archive - i just wonder at the resources people have for putting such a collection together, cheers
How beautiful. Lovers throughout the ages! I especially loved the real early ones or those from WWII. All really special!
ReplyDeleteThank you! and a big hug to you too!
hey anon, i just fell in love with this collection the moment i laid eyes on it - a collection that catches lives lost and not really reorded in many ublic venues. i was surprised that in so many the guys were so confident in their warm teasing committed relationships - as friends or lovers or wahtever. glad you enjoyed it as i did, cheers
ReplyDeletePS anon, big hugs back!
ReplyDelete