Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856 - 1931)

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Taormina : Wilhelm Von Gloeden by Wilhelm von Gloeden (Photographer), Roland Barthes, Angus Whyte (Translator)

Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden was born in 1856, near Wismar in what is now Germany. His classical education drew him to Italy and he settled in Taormina, a hillside town on the northeast coast of Sicily. In 1889, when his family allowance was interrupted, coupled with his interest in photography, the propitious gift of a view camera led him to a career in this field. He began photographing the male nude in the early 1890s, initially collaborating with his cousin Wilhelm von PlŸschow, with whom he often shared models and props. Following his death in 1931, von Gloeden's collection of over three thousand glass plate negatives were left to his long time friend and model Pancrazio Bucini. When Mussolini's Fascists entered Taormina in 1936, the negatives were seized, and Buicini was accused of "keeping pornography." Though Bucini was acquitted, the negatives were not returned until after World War II. Very few of the plates survived; most of what we know of the Baron's work has come to us from the collections of his admirers. This reissue of Taormina (which has been unavailable for some time) captures the beauty and eroticism of some of von Gloeden's finest images in large-format four-color plates, printed on fine paper.

Wilhelm von Gloeden

von Gloeden's Arcadian images of life in Italy harken to the Classical world. His escapist, historicizing vision is in the same tradition as fin-de-siecle painters like Alma-Tadema and Lord Leighton.

This site hosts three of von Gloeden's photographs.

Wilhelm von Gloeden

Excerpt:

Arcadian scenes with classically beautiful youth were the lifelong theme of the photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856-1831). He created his homoerotic works at the beginning of the century in the Sicilian town of Taormina...

Wilhelm von Gloeden:  Passion for Southern Bodies

From Gato Woody, from the book Wilhelm von Gloeden: Taormina, Twelvetrees Press, California, 1986.

Excerpt:

He began photographing the male nude in the early 1890's. Initially he collaborated with his cousin, von Pluschow often sharing models and props, thus making attribution difficult when researching their early careers (this sitee and others on the work of von Gloeden probably contain some photographs taken by Wilhelm von Pluschow). Von Gloeden's nudes were avidly collected. Their suggestion of ancient places, use of artifacts and classic compositions helped to divert or at least excuse their sexual impact. Many of the great men and women of the fin de siècle visited the Baron in Taormina: Eleanora Duse, Anatole France, Edward VII, Richard Strauss and Oscar Wilde, among them...

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