There was something about
the Obama pic below.
And it's not just the smokes.
Black and white, of course.
Almost oblivious to the camera.
As if they had more than enough going on in their own lives and minds.
Not distant, exactly, but serious, engrossed and engaged, but elsewhere.
No glitz, few props, except for Belmondo who was, after all, just playing at it.
And exceedingly comfortable in their own skins.
A very distant time and place.
11 comments:
Play it Sam...
Yeah, I thought I'd leave Bogie as subtext since I've never actually... fancied him as much as the other gentlemen in question.
If he's not your type, then I'll take him. I enjoy his tough guy in a corrupt world, who actually has his own moral compass, or at least manages to discover it along the way. I mean, since we are admitting Belmondo to our collection... Camus already has a Bogart-like quality to him - could be a brother.
Love the picture of Baldwin. The genuine ease of the body inhabiting the white shirt. And Robeson is simply gorgeous. Have you seen any of the nudes taken of him?
Nice collage.
...I vaguely remember hearing about the Robeson nudes, and now I shall scamper to find them: thanks!!
I've always loved the IDEA of Bogart, just not the actual incarnation, preferring, as you noted, Camus for that genre of gentleman.
Ah, men of substance and grace, such a necessary diversion from my other pesky obsessions.
I have only been able to find one of the nudes online, a Nickolas Muray photo. But it's a good one. Muray photographed many artists, writers and actors of the day, including Frida Kahlo, with whom he had a serious love affair. He did a series of nudes of Robeson, who was athletic and beautiful. I believe he was also photographed by Steichen.
Robeson also posed for a life-sized, nude sculpture by Antonio Salemme called "Negro Spiritual", but I have never seen it and cannot locate a picture of it online. He described himself while posing for it as singing "Deep River" - for two months. It was refused exhibition because of the subject matter, in favor of a white female nude. Robeson himself said that as far as he could tell, she wasn't singing anything at all.
Jean Gabin would not go astray in this mob, especially next to Bebel. After all he was the French version of Bogie :)
I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with Jean Gabin to speak even semi-intelligently about him. But I shall investigate his work.
It is true that male beauty encompasses much more than a certain narrow physical parameter. I cast an artist's and a woman's eye on my neighbor, nearly 80 years old - a potter and outdoorsman. He is earthy and fleshy in a Whitmanesque way and I find him good.
I'd add to our collection (he calls our beauties a mob!) the artist Robert Henri. He was a revolutionary art teacher and humanist whose paintings stand out from any other of his time in their verve and immediacy of experience. And if you have a chance and have never encountered it, do read his book, "The Art Spirit". I will send an excerpt from it written in 1915, although it has never been out of print and is still copyrighted.
Thanks, "v," got it. Unfortunately I've been under the weather all day, but I'll get back to you tomorrow.
Dearest v:
Finally pulling myself out of the slough of despair engendered by pinched nerve/compressed disc/whatever the hell it might be. I ascribe it entirely to spending too much time caught in the web of the election cycle and far too little in scouting out the splendid nuances of...male beauty. I promise more.
Oh, I don't like to think of you in the slough of despair, or the slough of anywhere, for that matter. I hope you are feeling significantly better.
And, yes, let's do keep on our minds and spirits on that which truly matters. We have our priorities, after all. The rest can go to Hell.
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