Collecting more than 100 works focused on men’s bodies, A Hard Man is Good to Find! — the latest exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in London — offers a remarkable insight into gay life in the capital from the early 30s through to the 90s.
Under the Obscene Publications Act 1857, the creation or distribution of nude male imagery was made illegal; any depiction of male nudity that might suggest homosexuality became a criminal offence. The law effectively forced overt homosexuality underground, making it invisible in the mainstream. (Indeed, Attitude magazine would never have found its way to your local newsagent’s shelves back then and owes its existence to the early pioneers of 20th-century queer photography!)
Undeterred by the UK’s Victorian laws, some gay men continued to seek out male contact and to photograph the male form. Images of nude or partially clothed men — and the gay men seeking them — found their route into the public domain via fitness magazines or private collections, which, in many cases, remained lost until their creator’s passing.
Coded as queer by the nature of the male
