Photographers - Part 42

Giovanni Dall'Orto

Giovanni Dall'Orto, at left above, is not a professional photographer.  He is an Italian historian, journalist and pro-LGBT activist.  However, he has published a large number of photos, mostly of nude males.  The photo above is called Caught in the Act.

Born in 1958, Dall'Orto is considered the leading scholar of the history of homosexuality.  In 2015 he published Tutta un'altra Storia (A Whole Other Story), a history of homosexuality from ancient times to the post-World War II period.

Above: The Bookshelf, 2016.

He also wrote the books Von Gloeden, Yesterday and Today, about the German photographer known for his nude photos of Sicilian youths, and Tourist Guide to Syracuse: A Guide to Visit Syracuse and Get to Know its Art and its Story.  The book is about Syracuse in Sicily, not Syracuse, New York.

Above: Nude on a Chair, 2014.

Dall'Orto says "I love photography, but I am not an artist and I am aware about it: I'm just a dude with a hobby."  I think he's too modest.  I see him as a talented photographer.  He has taken many interesting photos, like the silhouette above called Counterlight Michele, 2014 ...

and the one above called Boy Holding a Banana, 2015.  What looks like an erection is actually a banana that the boy was holding in his left hand.  Making it a silhouette was an inspired idea.

Pleasant Shadow, 2017 shows a real erection, of course, and Dall'Orto has published many other photos of guys with erections.  I like this photo for its use of shadow.

He also made use of mirrors in several photos.  Above, One Soul in 2 Bodies, 2019, ingeniously uses the mirror to reflect a second model superimposed on the first one.

Dall'Orto says, "I like pornography as anybody else and I have nothing against it, but here I am trying and creating something which is erotic without being porn. This is my challenge, in fact: as erotic as possible, falling short of being porn."

Above: Red Devil, 2014.  He hides or crops the faces of many of the models to protect their privacy because they are his friends, not professional models.

Only a small proportion of his photos show sex, but there are a few.  Above, Rimland, 2017.

Feedback, 2019.

Clean Love, 2016.  Are they fucking in the shower?  We assume they are, but you can't see it.

So Close, 2019.  Again, it looks like they're fucking, but you can't see it.

Explorer, 2019.  Of the more than 3000 photos that he has published, this is the only one I saw that actually shows a cock going into an ass.  

This photo is titled An Ages-Old Event, 2013, which is looking at it in a philosophical way, but after all, Dall'Orto is the expert on the history of sex.

And speaking of philosophy, we end with this photo titled in French L'Autre Côté de l'Origine du Monde (The Other Side of the Origin of the World).  It's a witty reference to the famous 1866 painting L'Origine du Monde (The Origin of the World) by Gustave Courbet, which shows a woman with her vagina exposed.  Courbet's painting reminds us that we all came out of a vagina, but Dall'Orto's photo is saying that it takes two to tango, and we all also came out of a penis.