From Gayletter No. 483:
Opened March 28 at the Museum of Sex, James Bidgood: Reveries explores the artist’s unbelievable photographs. James Bidgood moved to Manhattan in the 1950s, and began taking his colorful, dream-like photos of men in his cramped Hell’s Kitchen apartment. There was nothing like his work at the time; ornate nudes and semi-nudes taken with props and backdrops to give the illusion of a photograph taken underwater, in Paris, or in some other dream landscape. In 1971, Bidgood’s vision came together in the cult film Pink Narcissus, a homoerotic dream painted in hues of pink and purple that followed the fantasies of a handsome young hustler. He was inspired by the spectacular production in Playboy Magazine, “For gay men, the only nude photos were of some nasty little boy standing by someone’s mantle, and they were really tacky and tawdry with no color and no lighting. I wanted to do something unusual.” Along with Bidgood’s surreal photos, the Museum of Sex will show photos from physique magazines of the artist’s time with them as well as photographs from Bidgood’s drag queen days as Terry Howe at Club 82. Make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to experience Bidgood’s dream in full.