Gentlemen friends - two by two in vintage photographs

 

Artsists Aleksander and Maksymilian Gierymski posing for a preparatory photograph wearing historical costume. 

Courtesy Stephen Rutledge.

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Friends, brothers, co-workers, and sometimes - rarely - even lovers. Many of these are the sort of vintage images frequently shared on social media with claims to be examples of same-sex relationships in the past, proof that "we've always been here", as if any half-sane individual could really argue against that point. But, while I'd love to think that these are indeed a record of men involved in loving and/or sexual partnerships, I can't allow myself to imagine that all but the rarest are. Even the images that appear to be overtly romantic or sexual were almost always posed as a display of racy humor rather than with the intent to make a very public record of genuine affections and implied activities that could never have been made public at all. What I feel confident they do record is the comfort men felt with same-sex physical contact before definitions of sexuality and ideas of appropriate masculine behavior became so rigidly codified, before displays of affection between men became so frowned upon. At any rate, I'm totally good without knowing anything of the particular relationships captured in the pictures shared here. I don't even feel compelled to imagine anything of their stories; for me, the images suffice.