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James Bidgood: Lachapelle before Lachapelle
Posted Sep 15, 2009
Before Lachapelle put a little crown over Madonna’s head, before Pierre et Gilles offered their celestial Catherine Deneuve surrounded by clouds, James Bidgood was the Master of colour and naked bodies.
To celebrate its 25th anniversary - Taschen publishing house is releasing a special edition and complete overview of James Bidgood’s influential body of work. The multilingual book (published in English, French and German) offers a complete overview of Bidgood works, from his early fifties work and provides a surprising journey through new aesthetic camps starting from the homo-erotic “traditional” beefcake imaginary.
The Monograph is written by Bruce Benderson, an American novelist, essayist, journalist and translator who has been published in The New York Times Magazine, Village Voice, Nest, Paris Vogue, and Blackbook, and has won the prestigious French literary “Prix de Flore” prize for his erotic autobiography “The Romanian – Story of an Obsession”.
Bruce Benderson’s monography not only provides an insight into Bidgood’s work, but as his life is as interesting as his works there’s a focus on this too.
Bidgood first arrived in New York in 1951, starting life as a drag queen, a hairdresser and a set designer; he went on to work on his first movie, Pink Narcissus for eight years (1963-1971) - a period so long costume designers had to use make up and a wig to cover up the passing of time on the main character’s face.
In the end, the film's producers had to literally steal the film from Bidgood’s apartment in order to release it, making him so upset he refused to put his name to the movie, leaving its director credits as “Anonymous”, (only declaring himself as the film’s director in 1999). In 2000 Bidgood started his new movie: Fag, a work (still) in progress - described by the author as ‘a sort of autobiography’.
James Bidgood, by Bruce Benderson, Hardcover, 19.5 x 39 cm (7.7 x 15.4 in.), 184 pages.
Giuliano Federico
TAGS: taschen james bidgood lachappelle photographer pulp pierre et gilles bruce benderson pink narcissus
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