ΣΑΝ ΣΗΜΕΡΑ. GEORGE PLATT LYNES

George Platt Lynes (ΗΠΑ, 15/4/1907 – 6/12/1955)

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George Platt Lynes by David Leddick
With the same masterful lighting and surreal compositions he brought to bear on portrait, dance and fashion photography, George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) created throughout his career a hidden body of marvelous work celebrating the nude male form.
In this newest addition to TASCHEN's award winning Photography Series, author David Leddick divides George Platt Lynes' photography into distinct sections; Portraits, the Ballet, Fashion, Nudes, and Mythology, and meticulously documents the striking work of this influential 20th century photographer.
The Portraits section includes images of so many important, creative men and women including Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, Colette, Gloria Swanson, Igor Stravinsky and Henri Cartier-Bresson, that it is a veritable Who's Who of the cultural elite of Platt Lynes' time.
Platt Lynes' ballet work grew out of an almost life-long association with dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein that dated back to their schooldays. For nearly 20 years, starting in 1933, Platt Lynes' photos documented the fantastically exciting evolution of Kirstein's and George Balanchine's American Ballet Company and recorded for posterity ground-breaking ballets including the '36 Orpheus and Eurydice with magnificent sets and costumes by Pavel Tchelitchew, a decade later the equally revolutionary Orpheus with sets and costumes by Isamu Noguchi, and in '49 the dazzling Firebird, a signature dance of the New York City Ballet.
Platt Lynes fashion photography was extraordinary - using to the fullest dramatic lighting, surreal sets and the most arresting models, he created a body of stunning images that showed couture to its best advantage for clients like Harper's Bazaar and Lord & Taylor.
Finally, in the Nudes and Mythology sections, Platt Lynes' personal passions are truly revealed. Though he did his share of lovely female nudes it is his male nudes that resonate. A photographic obsession that remained secret until after his death, Platt Lynes' work with male nude models transcended time and place, referring back to classical Greek athleticism and forward to the modern urban eroticism of Robert Mapplethorpe and Bruce Weber. Erotic and forthright, these pictures are a passionate celebration of the male form. -- The publisher, Pam Sommers, Public Relations Manager, Taschen America