Uncovered

The historic substance behind these vintage photos--never before published in book form, gives this book an air of respectability that no other male erotic photo book has. Uncovered brings to light the work of ten photographers who were suppressed and censored in their time. Produced in the pre-Stonewall era, these images were kept underground for fear of police confiscation, harassment, or worse. Each chapter in Uncovered presents at least ten full-page reproductions by a different photographer, plus the fascinating stories of each photographer's work and how it has been uncovered. Many photographers worked undercover, carrying on entirely different careers in the daytime and then taking their covert pictures on the sidelines, with studios hidden away in basements and attics. Many used aliases to conceal their identities. Some of their archives were hidden away for decades in closed archives under lock and key. Other caches of photos were barely savedfrom the incinerator only by the intrepid research of passionate collectors. The photographers included are Antonio Arabia (who produced tens of thousands of images), John Barrington (from London, who was happily married all his life to his wife, who maintained his archive after his death), Earle Forbes (a career contributor to the physique magazines of the 40s and 50s), Robert Galster (a WWII veteran and graphic designer of Broadway posters, whose life-partner of 70 years is now the caretaker of his archive), Anthony Guyther (aka "Vulcan," of the physique magazines of the 50s and 60s), George Haimsohn (a librettist whose first play launched Bernadette Peters's career), Frederick Kovert (a silent film actor who appeared in the first Wizard of Oz), George Platt Lynes (whose close circle included the artist Paul Cadmus and the composer Lincoln Kirstein), Al Urban (a maniacal craftsman who became a recluse in latter years) and Don Whitman (who tookphysique photography outdoors, into his surrounding Rocky Mountain landscapes).