George Platt Lynes (April 15, 1907 – December 6, 1955) was an American
fashion and
commercial photographer who worked in the 1930s and 1940s.[1] He produced photographs featuring many gay artists and writers from the 1940s that were acquired by the
Kinsey Institute after his death in 1955.[2]
He returned to the
United States with the idea of a literary career and he even opened a bookstore in
Englewood, New Jersey in 1927. He first became interested in
photography not with the idea of a career, but to take photographs of his friends and display them in his bookstore.
Returning to
France the next year in the company of Wescott and Wheeler, he traveled around Europe for the next several years, always with his camera at hand. He developed close friendships within a larger circle of artists including
Jean Cocteau and
Julien Levy, an art dealer and critic. Levy would exhibit his photographs in his
gallery in
New York City in 1932 and Lynes would open his studio there that same year.
He was also most notably friends with
Katherine Anne Porter,[5] author of the novel Ship of Fools, whom he often enjoyed photographing wearing elaborate evening gowns and occasionally reenacting Shakespeare.[6]
During his lifetime, Lynes amassed a substantial body of work involving nude and homoerotic photography. In the 1930s, he began taking nudes of friends, performers, and models, including a young
Yul Brynner, although these remained private, unknown, and unpublished for years.[2] Over the following two decades, Lynes continued his work in this area passionately, albeit privately. "The depth and commitment he had in photographing the male nude, from the start of his career to the end, was astonishing. There was absolutely no commercial impulse involved — he couldn't exhibit it, he couldn't publish it." – Allen Ellenzweig, art and photography critic who wrote the introduction to George Platt Lynes: The Male Nudes, published in 2011 by Rizzoli.[7]
In the late 1940s, Lynes became acquainted with Dr.
Alfred Kinsey and his
Institute in
Bloomington, Indiana.[7] Kinsey took an interest in Lynes work, as he was researching homosexuality in America at the time.[2] A large number of Lynes' nude and homoerotic works were left to the Kinsey Institute after his death in 1955.[4] The body of work residing at the Kinsey Institute remained largely unknown until it was made public and published later.[8] The Kinsey collection represents one of the largest single collections of Lynes's work.[7]
Personal life
For over ten years, Lynes had a love affair with both the curator
Monroe Wheeler and the writer
Glenway Wescott (1901–1987).[8] He later got together with his studio assistant and, after he died in
World War II, Lynes moved in with the younger brother of the assistant.[8]
Los Angeles
Lynes was in Los Angeles from 1946-1948, living both before and after in New York City.[9] He first visited to vacation and meet some friends he knew there including novelists
Katherine Anne Porter and
Christopher Isherwood, and labor organizer
Bernardine Szold Fritz.[9] Upon arriving there he met painter
Mai-Mai Sze, costume designers
Irene Sharaff and costume designer
Adrian (costume designer), and Adrian's wife
Janet Gaynor.[9] He also did portraits of the writers
Thomas Mann and
Aldous Huxley.[9] After meeting all these within a few weeks of his first visit, he decide to relocate from New York to explore the arts scene in LA.[9] Lynes still had commissions for photography with
Vogue through their art director
Alexander Liberman[9] After moving to LA, Lynes reconnected with socialite
Denham Fouts, whom he had photographed in New York in the 30s and the two exchanged social networks.[9]
Death
By May 1955, Lynes had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He closed his studio and was reported to have destroyed much of his print and negative archives, particularly his male nudes. However, it is now known that he had transferred many of these works to the Kinsey Institute. "He clearly was concerned that this work, which he considered his greatest achievement as a photographer, should not be dispersed or destroyed...We have to remember the time period we're talking about—America during the post-war Red Scare..."[7]
After a final trip to Europe, Lynes returned to New York City, where he died in 1955, while living with his brother and his family.[1]
Leddick, David (2000) [1999]. Intimate Companions: a Triography of George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Lincoln Kirstein, and Their Circle. New York: St. Martin's Press.
ISBN978-1-250-10478-6.
OCLC1035670535.
Leddick, David (2000). George Platt Lynes, 1907-1955. Foreword by Pohorilenko Anatole. Köln: Taschen.
ISBN978-3-8228-6403-6.
OCLC44604743.
Lynes, George Platt (2011). George Platt Lynes: The Male Nudes. New York: Rizzoli International Publications.
ISBN978-0-8478-3374-0.