From the article by Miss Rosen for Another Man:
Artist, photographer and family man John S. Barrington (1921-1991) was a true eccentric, crafting a double life as the godfather of British physique photography who openly flouted the UK’s strident anti-homosexuality laws while vehemently denying he was gay.
In 1938, Barrington, then 17, took up photography as a young art student, making figure studies of lithe young men. Barrington insisted his fascination with the male body was an integral part of his artistic process, his photographs becoming the basis for images then used to create drawings, silverpoint, and sculptures – yet Barrington also slept with the very men he photographed.
“Barrington was able to justify his life, existence, and behaviour by conceptualising it like an alter-ego or split personality, as though the married guy with children and the promiscuous pornographer were two separate people within the same body,” says gallerist Brian Paul Clamp. “I think the photography came out of his desire to have these sexual relationships. At times it seemed as though the photography was an aside, but he also considered himself a ‘fine artist’ and was frustrated that he never received recognition for his work.”