In this series of articles featuring James Seely (see foot of post), I've posted numerous images of him in which (despite the restrictions of the 1960's) he is genuinely naked, but none of them are frontal nudes, which were considered to be indecent. The 'shower post' illustrated how clumsy and contrived some of the cover-ups were to comply with this ban.
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| 1 |
Looking at this image of James today it's hard to comprehend what all the fuss was about. It shows a beautiful physique and although he looks very attractive 'out of pouch' it barely qualifies as erotic. I suppose the oily sheen on his physique might be thought dubious, but it was then, and still is, a standard device used by body builders to highlight their muscle development to contest judges.
Later on, in the 70's, Mike Arlen would anoint his model's cocks with oil
to produce spectacularly sexy results.
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| 2 |
This photographer has taken pains to ensure that Seely does not look aroused, which would have made the picture not just indecent, but pornographic. Similarly James' facial expression, which is often entertainingly animated in other images, is sober and serious here allowing a claim to be made that the image is purely artistic (which is what the column is there for of course).
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| 3 |
Here James poses with another lusciously muscled man who I have not yet identified (info welcome)
Any gay man would see eroticism simmering in this coupling, but the photographer has pre-empted accusations of smut by placing the models either side of the pseudo-classical column seen in 1 above. It's effect is rather like the pillow down the centre of the bed, supposedly used by Hollywood film makers to legitimise putting movie stars in bed together.
However, the models' hands are tantalisingly close together on top of the column, and the fingers of James' partner (both hands) look as if they are itching to get up to mischief. In fact, you might have taken the model's facial expressions to indicate that they just have. Fortunately all is calm down below.
Purveyors of nude images presumably took precautions to prevent intercepted images being traced back to them and recipients sometimes took elaborate precautions like using Post Office boxes and Post Restante to prevent their addresses being discovered by the authorities on envelopes and mailing lists (and also to hide the material from their wives and other people they lived with). Police in the UK went out of their way to expose gay men to their relatives and employers, ruining many lives. Not all gay men lived in fear though, if you lived your life openly the risk of fines was worth running.
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| 4 |
With the models down on one knee the separating effect of the column is increased, allowing the models to face each other, but not look at each other. To the knowing eye, though, the phallic connotations of the column are clear enough.
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| 5 |
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Apart from Denfield, James Seely only seems to have posed for Kris of Chicago and Bob Mizer and I believe the photographer who took these images was Kris. Kris didn't go in for Greek Columns very much but a very similar object can be seen in the catalogue page below (No 7). A drum sized version, painted black, also appears in several of his images.
In addition to identifying the column in images 1, 3 and 4, the original of one of the other nude images above (No 2) has the inscription 'R-27' on it and you can see above that this is how Kris numbered his sets in his catalogue.
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The James Seely series: