A deliciously explicit addition to my collection of early-1900s photographs featuring the incomparable Il Serpente, ‘The snake’ - the most naturally blessed and beautifully, brazenly seductive of all Vincenzo Galdi’s models.
If other photographers wished to give their work an air of respectability with classical allusions and reference to an Arcadian idyl, Vincenzo Galdi was publishing photographs with no such delicate gloss of innocence. Often explicit, always emphasising the sensual, the erotic, the full-frontal nude presented without discretion or modesty. We see variations on this pose - seated, knees parted - over and over and over again.
A young man from Rome, captured in all his sensual glory by Vincenzo Galdi, in the early years of the 20th century. A beautiful portrait of a beautiful man!
Portraits create such a powerful sense of a moment captured and kept, a fine face made everlasting; as we look upon this strong-featured anonymous Italian, know he was photographed by Vincenzo Galdi a little over a hundred years ago.
Not the finest image quality, nor the most inspiring pose, but still rather a splendid sight to behold - one of Vincenzo Galdi’s wonderfully well-chosen male models from turn-of-the-century Rome.
A true and deserved star of early erotic photography, this beautiful model is one of my favourites (indeed, I chose him as the avatar to represent this whole collection). We have seen this sensual photograph by Vincenzo Galdi before, but not so large nor so detailed; do take a closer look at the full size image to fully appreciate such an exquisite man!
One more of Vincenzo Galdi’s daringly dirty photographs from the turn of the last century, a continuation of a scene seen here.
A fine example of Vincenzo Galdi’s unreservedly raunchy homoerotic scenes from the early years of the twentieth century.
There’s some debate on whether we see here a cleverly constructed duplication of the same ravishing model photographed in two poses, or twins - the profiles appear to differ in the other shot, though that may just be the angle of the heads, and it seems to me that the man on the left both times has tanned legs, while the one on the right, does not. And yet their bodies are so remarkably alike that they must surely be the same man twice! A puzzle indeed. What do you think?
This stern-faced Italian model makes a strikingly beautiful and seductive subject for Vincenzo Galdi’s erotic male photography, in the early years of the 20th century. We have seen him pose before, for his sultry and somewhat sullen good looks I have dubbed him the brooding beauty.
One of Vincenzo Galdi’s earlier photographs, taken near his sunny hometown of Naples in the late 1890s. The anonymous model has certainly been in the sun, a stark contrast between the tanned parts of his body and the pale skin covered ‘til he bared all for his photograph.
A genuine delight, here, another photograph of the charming Carlo, lover of the painter Robert Hawthorn Kitson, and captured on camera by Vincenzo Galdi in the early years of the 20th century. I had gathered all his portraits so far into a set, now I shall have to make room for one more!
Another of the quite wonderful pornographic photographs by Vincenzo Galdi which were donated to my collection at the end of last year. This is sadly not the clearest quality, but every last one of these scandalous erotic images must be treasured, it is remarkable that they’ve survived at all!
What a beautiful young man, gazing at a single flower plucked from the overspilling vase at his side - see, fallen petals scattered across his thigh. I have another, possibly even more lovely, portrait of this same model from Rome, photographed by Galdi in the early years of the 20th century.
What a fine treat, a third photograph from this series of gloriously sensual sunlit scenes by Vincenzo Galdi, who took the idea of innocent outdoor nudes pioneered by Von Gloeden, and turned it into something altogether more earthy, and deliberately erotic. Once again we see one beautiful young man lie draped over the rocks, while another gazes longingly down at him - a theme carried through all images in the set.
