Lynes

George Platt (1907-1955). American photographer. At first attracted by literature, he tried to write a novel, but in 1925 moved to Paris and made the acquaintance of several members of the artistic avant-garde. He continued to move back and forth between Europe and New York, where he opened a bookshop (that he later moved to New Jersey) and the publishing company Stable Publications. His authors included Gertrude Stein, René Crevel, and Ernest Hemingway. Having been given a camera, under the guidance of a professional photographer he took up photography. Renowned for his portraits of famous personalities and friends such as Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau, he exhibited them in personal exhibitions, but he also produced theater photographs and amazing male nudes of intense sensuality. In 1932 he opened a studio in New York and began publishing his photos in Town and Country and Harper’s Bazaar, which were characterized by clear references to Surrealism. From 1946 to 1948 he directed the Vogue studios in Hollywood, but on his return to New York he was so overwhelmed by debts that in 1951 his archive and studio were seized and put up for auction. Thus, only 600 photos, which were purchased by Alfred Kinsey to illustrate homosexual eroticism in his Institute’s collection, escaped the destruction Lynes himself perpetrated on his works for fear that they could damage his reputation.