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Overview
Dear Friends is the first book to demonstrate how common it was for 19th-century American men to commemorate intimate friendships with a visit to the local photographer. Reproducing more than 100 never-before-published vintage photographs, this groundbreaking book provides evidence of a kind of physical intimacy between men that challenges the conventional view of the Victorian era. David Deitcher's provocative text combines historical research, social observation, and pictorial analysis to explore the nature of same-sex affection between men during the period.Editorials
Library Journal
At first glance, this appears to be a simple collection of quaint images daguerreotypes, tintypes, and so forth that derive a certain charm from the convivial young men they picture. More than 100 images feature pairings, or occasionally small groups, engaged in what to 21st-century eyes are surprisingly demonstrative though never unseemly poses. In one, a dapper Victorian gentleman, cigar in hand, casually sits on the lap of another man with pipe in mouth, both looking as if it is the most natural thing in the world. What makes this book so much more than a coffee-table curiosity is Deitcher's 50-page essay. The art historian and critic deftly intermingles scholarly research on 19th-century same-sex friendship with his own personal reactions to the photos as a gay man and model pictorial analysis: he consistently picks out the salient details for rigorously accurate description, then moves on to the ambiguities of interpretation. The pictures compel readers to speculate on the ultimately unknowable mindset of these mostly anonymous sitters. Deitcher's essay turns these thoughts into a dialog on the nature of viewing, posing, desire, and photography itself. Eric Bryant, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.Book Details
Published
April 23, 2001
Publisher
New York : Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
Pages
159
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780810957121