Alain Delon photographed in 1958 at the Cannes Film Festival by the notorious John Barrington. When Alain became famous he wanted all these photos destroyed.
Barrington's greatest work was done from the time of his marriage, through the Fifties and Sixties - although what Mrs Barrington thought of all this carry-on is never quite clear. There were a handful of models whom he photographed again and again, who had their own dedicated followings among his clients in Britain and America: Tibor Noszkay, a Hungarian refugee, Yves Martin, a former French air force pilot. They were usually down on their luck, happy to accept a few quid from Barrington and dazzled by the prospect of a career in modelling. Sometimes they eventually made it legitimately - there are some beautiful photographs of Alain Delon taken in Cannes when he was a teenager. In 1954 Barrington launched Male Model Monthly, the first magazine of its kind in Britain; there were no genitals or pubic hair to be seen and certainly nothing to suggest to the casual reader that it was a homosexual publication, but those in the know sent off for the additional - ie uncensored - photographs of the models featured. Barrington also contributed to other equally dodgy and dodgily produced magazines, such as the classic American title, Physique Pictorial. Work from this period has become very collectable and has a cult following. A minor industry recycles the old physique work through books, magazines and on the internet. Barrington has his own Web site, the Wickford Schatzkammer, run by a major American collector, while Kouros, a collection of some of Barrington's best work selected by him just before he died, is published in this country by Gay Men's Press. The quality of Barrington's work tailed off from the late Sixties, with the dawn of gay liberation and greater sexual freedom. The more closeted times seemed to suit him better. He seemed uncomfortable producing work which was sexually explicit or openly gay: an advert for one his titles in the Seventies promises "no banner-waving, Gay Lib hang-ups".
For the complete article, see:
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books-not-gay-ju...
Alain Delon photographed in 1958 at the Cannes Film Festival by the notorious John Barrington. When Alain became famous he wanted all these photos destroyed.
Barrington's greatest work was done from the time of his marriage, through the Fifties and Sixties - although what Mrs Barrington thought of all this carry-on is never quite clear. There were a handful of models whom he photographed again and again, who had their own dedicated followings among his clients in Britain and America: Tibor Noszkay, a Hungarian refugee, Yves Martin, a former French air force pilot. They were usually down on their luck, happy to accept a few quid from Barrington and dazzled by the prospect of a career in modelling. Sometimes they eventually made it legitimately - there are some beautiful photographs of Alain Delon taken in Cannes when he was a teenager. In 1954 Barrington launched Male Model Monthly, the first magazine of its kind in Britain; there were no genitals or pubic hair to be seen and certainly nothing to suggest to the casual reader that it was a homosexual publication, but those in the know sent off for the additional - ie uncensored - photographs of the models featured. Barrington also contributed to other equally dodgy and dodgily produced magazines, such as the classic American title, Physique Pictorial. Work from this period has become very collectable and has a cult following. A minor industry recycles the old physique work through books, magazines and on the internet. Barrington has his own Web site, the Wickford Schatzkammer, run by a major American collector, while Kouros, a collection of some of Barrington's best work selected by him just before he died, is published in this country by Gay Men's Press. The quality of Barrington's work tailed off from the late Sixties, with the dawn of gay liberation and greater sexual freedom. The more closeted times seemed to suit him better. He seemed uncomfortable producing work which was sexually explicit or openly gay: an advert for one his titles in the Seventies promises "no banner-waving, Gay Lib hang-ups".
For the complete article, see:
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books-not-gay-ju...