Gay Photobook - Men of WWII: Fighting Men at Ease by Evan Bachner (Abrams, 2007)

Hardback coffee table photobook collecting more than 150 photographs of United States Navy servicemen during the Second World War, drawn from the National Archives, many never previously published. Edited by Evan Bachner, published by Harry N. Abrams, 2007.

The follow-up to Bachner's earlier compilation At Ease, this volume showcases the work of the U.S. Naval Aviation Photographic Unit, organised under the direction of the legendary photographer Captain Edward J. Steichen to document the daily lives of American sailors during the war. Contributing photographers include Wayne Miller, Horace Bristol, Victor Jorgensen and Barrett Gallagher. The images focus on the off-duty moments, men relaxing, training, waiting, washing, bunking together, rather than combat. Affectionate, playful, and quietly intimate, they capture a register of physical closeness between men that largely disappeared from public photography in the postwar decades.

A strong reference work for collectors of vintage homoerotic and proto-gay photography, military history enthusiasts, and admirers of mid-century documentary photography. 160 pages, hardcover with dust jacket.

Condition: Good