Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from Their Beginnings to Stonewall

Amazon.com
The history of gay male erotic images is largely undocumented. Even when the material has been available, "good taste" and "common decency"--those concepts used to stop all talk about sex--have prevented their display. Thomas Waugh's full-length, profusely illustrated study is a breakthrough book that has information and analysis enough for three books. Thoughtful, smart, and well-written, Hard to Imagine uncovers a visual history of gay male eroticism that few know. It chronicles the complicated history of homosexual desire and how it has been depicted and repressed.

From Library Journal
Social historians and researchers in popular culture have recognized for some time how easily their primary sources can get lost, discarded by their users and uncollected by institutions affiliated with the dominant class. Though it is now more than two decades since historians have sought to retrieve the personal stories and reconstruct the political currents of gay and lesbian lives, social taboos have sufficiently repressed serious investigation of the sexual tastes and products of gay communities. In this vast and valuable study, Waugh (film studies, Concordia Univ., Montreal) has accumulated the most comprehensive study of gay erotic film and photography that will probably ever be undertaken. Where Allen Ellenzweig (The Homoerotic Photograph, Columbia Univ., 1992) concentrated on socially acceptable "art" photography, Waugh also examines amateur snapshots and commercial illicit works and puts them all in the context of both reflecting and contributing to changing gay social/political culture over the last 100 years. For publishing this oversize, well-illustrated work in the face continuing stigma?more than 30 printers turned down the project, delaying publication for eight months?Columbia is to be commended. For all academic collections and public libraries with gay and lesbian holdings.?Eric Bryant, "Library Journal"Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"In this vast and valuable study, Waugh has accumulated the most comprehensive study of gay erotic film and photography that will probably ever be undertaken." -- Library Journal

Library Journal
...vast and valuable study... most comprehensive study of gay erotic film and photography that will probably ever be undertaken.

Book Description
Spanning more than a century of photography and film, Hard to Imagine is the first visual chronicle of the evolution of gay male image culture, from the canonical works of "art" photography and cinema to the private and often highly explicit productions of amateurs.

About the Author
Thomas Waugh is professor of film studies at Concordia University, Montreal, and editor of Show Us Life: Towards a History and Aesthetics of Committed Documentary. His articles on the history of homoerotic film and photography have appeared in the Village Voice, Cineaction!, JUMP CUT, The Body Politic, and other publications.


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Spanning more than a century of photography and film, this visual chronicle of the evolution of gay male image culture explores a vast, eclectic tradition. Waugh analyzes the aesthetics of the visual imagery of homoerotica as well as its production, circulation, consumption, and broad social and legal implications. His analysis of gay eroticism is accompanied by 377 photographsmost of them of nude menranging from the artful, pansexual works of 19th century European studio photographers to modern commercial efforts. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.


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