Portrait of Monroe Wheeler
1999.09.06
George Lynes, born in New Jersey 1907, started his career as a self taught fashion photographer that worked for several high-profile clients like Vogue magazine. Before his death in 1955, Lynes would disavow commercial work and destroy many of his prints and negatives to commit himself to his true passion, photographing the male nude. These photographs would become his most celebrated and well known as he himself became an icon of the New York gay community.
Lynes’ grey-scale work is characterized by its homoerotic overtones and high contrast. His subjects varied from nude male models to high-profile celebrities and figures in the art world, such as Salvador Dali. Depicted here is Monroe Wheeler, one of Lynes’ mentors and, later, the exhibition director at the Museum of Modern Art. Wheeler was one of many people that he met on his trip to Paris in 1925 that inspired his love of photography.