"Taormina"

albumen print, matte on vat paper

signed, dated and placed (ink) on recto; collection stamp (Sammlung Franz Toth) on verso

The German photographer Wilhelm von Gloeden is considered part of the Pictorialism movement and is known for his influential and controversial work in portrait and nude photography, especially his photographs of young men. Due to health problems, he settled permanently in Taormina in Sicily. The landscape, the light and the Mediterranean culture inspired his work. At the time, Taormina was a popular destination for European intellectuals, artists and travelers.
Von Gloeden became known for his staged photographs, which often depicted young men from the region, sometimes undressed or in antique garments. These images are characterized by the aesthetics of antiquity and are reminiscent of classical paintings or sculptures. He used props such as laurel wreaths, amphorae and columns to give the scenes an antique feel. His photographs are characterized by careful composition and lighting, which make his works appear artistic and painterly. Von Gloeden worked with a plate camera, which was common at the time and required a long preparation and exposure time. The scenery therefore had to be carefully planned and staged. This may have contributed to the great, almost archaic calm that his pictures radiate. He was one of the first photographers to take nudes outdoors. The collodion wet process used required the glass plate to be sensitized on location, immediately before the photograph was taken. After exposure, the latent image on the glass plates, which only lasted for a short time, had to be developed immediately, so von Gloeden carried a kind of mobile darkroom with him. He left behind around 3,000 photographs, the majority of which were destroyed after his death during the fascist regime under Mussolini, as they were considered immoral and pornographic.
In the 1960s, Gloeden was rediscovered in the course of the sexual revolution. His photographs were exhibited at documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977, among other places. Artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Cecil Beaton, Andy Warhol and Bruce Weber appreciated and collected his photographs. In 1978, the artist Joseph Beuys produced a multiple entitled Von Gloeden Postcards, consisting of 13 motifs of Von Gloeden with pencil drawings, signed and numbered as postcards.
Today, Wilhelm von Gloeden is regarded as a pioneer of artistic nude photography. His works have an important place in the history of photography and play a key role in lgbtq+ art history. Von Gloeden is regarded as an artist who crossed the boundary between art and taboo and made an important contribution to the development of photography as an art form. This print comes from the collection of the German photographer and photo historian Franz Toth.
(Christoph Fuchs, translated by deepL)