Lynes

Self-portrait - George Platt Lynes

George Platt Lynes (1907–1955) is one of those figures who quietly sits at the center of everything. He ran with Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret French, but his circle stretched even wider—Christopher Isherwood, Lincoln Kirstein, Jean Cocteau—and deep into the dance world with Isadora Duncan and George Balanchine. 

George Platt Lynes - Man Ray

Self-portrait (in front of his appearance in Cadmus' Caverlymen Crossing a River) - George Platt Lynes

He even stepped in front of the camera himself, posing nude for Man Ray and the PaJaMa group. But photography was always his anchor—mostly black and white, always about light, composition, and restraint.

Ted Starkowski - George Platt Lynes

Gordon Hanson - George Platt Lynes

Male Nudes - George Platt Lynes

What sets Lynes apart is where he sits in the spectrum. He was working at the same time as Bob Mizer and others in the physique world, but his work leans much more toward fine art than fitness or overt homoerotic fantasy. No costumes, no sailor or cowboy archetypes—just the body, shaped by light and space. 

Nude Man - George Platt Lynes

Dancer - George Platt Lynes

If you fast-forward, he feels closer in spirit to Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, or Tom Bianchi. His photographs for what would become the New York City Ballet—especially Balanchine’s Apollo—are iconic, and they land right at that intersection where dance, sculpture, and photography all blur together.

Male Nude - George Balanchine

And then there’s the history around it. Lynes was working in that charged window between the Great Depression and World War II, just as earlier queer openness in places like the Weimar Republic had been shut down. The lines between art, fitness culture, and erotic expression weren’t rigid, but they were distinct enough to attract different audiences—and all of it had to exist carefully under the radar. 

Two Nudes - George Platt Lynes

Two Seated Nude Figures - George Quaintance

His connection to Alfred Kinsey is key here: much of Lynes’s nude work, too risky to show publicly at the time, ended up preserved through the Kinsey Institute. What he left behind is massive, layered, and still unfolding—and honestly, this is just a glimpse.

Alfred Kinsey - George Quaintance

George Quaintance behind the camera with unknown assistant

Thoughts?

Anyone recognize the assistant in this final photo?  he looks familiar (and handsome;).  This moment in history fascinates the fuck out of me.  There's a deeper dive in all this with tangents to last a lifetime.  All stories are welcome!