Although he is remembered primarily for his striking and scandalous portraits of young male nudes, Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden was an extremely talented and sensitive photographer of the people and landscape of Taormina, the Sicilian paradise where he spent most of his adult life.
Taken between 1878 and 1914, these images are rich in atmosphere and tranquil sensuality, capturing not only the idyllic beauty of their subject, but a rough-hewn quality that evokes both classic and modern sensibilities. Posed alongside ancient ruins, draped in Romanesque togas and crowned in wreaths, von Gloeden’s young models could be mistaken for little gods, were it not for their ragged fingernails and dirty feet. This celebration of the realistic amidst the glory of the ancient empires made von Gloeden a favorite with some of the more interesting figures of the fin de siecle—including Eleonora Duse, Anatole France, Edward VII, Richard Strauss, and Oscar Wilde—and his photographs were avidly collected. Just prior to World War II, most of von Gloeden’s works were outlawed and destroyed, damaged or impounded by Italy’s fascist government. Rediscovered during the late sixties and early seventies, von Gloeden’s work has been the subject of several historical treatises and exhibitions. The sixty photographs presented in this hauntingly beautiful volume are among the handful of original images that remain of von Gloeden’s once considerable oeuvre.