A photographic history of men in love - 一部关于相爱的男人们的摄影史

When Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell came across an old photograph at an antique store in Dallas, Texas, they saw something of themselves reflected in the image.

当休·尼尼和尼尔·崔德威尔在德克萨斯州达拉斯的一家古董店看到一张老照片时，他们看到了照片里反映出的自己的影子。

Taken around 1920, it showed two men in front of a house, posing in a loving embrace at a time when being gay was not only frowned upon but effectively illegal.

这张照片拍摄于1920年左右。照片中，两个男人在一栋房子前，摆出爱的拥抱姿势。而当时同性恋不仅被人唾弃，而且实际上是非法的。

“It represented us, so we bought the photo, took it home and had it on our desks for six or nine months,” Treadwell recalled in a phone interview from the couple's home in New York City. “It was a random find, and we never thought we'd find another one.”

“它代表了我们，所以我们买下了这张照片，把它带回家，在我们的办公桌上放了六九个月。”崔德威尔在纽约市这对夫夫的家中接受电话采访时回忆道，“这是一个偶然的发现，我们从来没有想过我们会找到另一张。”

Yet, in the two decades since, the pair discovered far more – in fact, by scouring auctions, junk stores and flea markets, they've amassed an archive of almost 3,000 images of men in love.

然而，在此后的20年里，两人发现了更多的东西——事实上，通过在拍卖会、废品店和跳蚤市场上的搜寻，他们已经积累了近3000张恋爱中的男人的图像档案。

Captured between the mid-19th century and just after World War II, and taken across five continents, the collection comprises portraits and candid shots of couples lying in bed, picnicking on grass and posing beside their cars. Nini and Treadwell may not know the circumstances in which the pictures were taken, but they believe the subjects' body language and mutual gazes are, unmistakably, those of romantic lovers.

这些照片拍摄于19世纪中叶至第二次世界大战结束后，横跨五大洲，包括躺在床上、在草地上野餐和在车旁摆姿势的情侣肖像和坦率的照片。尼尼和崔德威尔可能不知道这些照片是在什么情况下拍摄的，但他们相信拍摄对象的肢体语言和相互凝视的眼神，毫无疑问是浪漫的情侣。

Now, they have published more than 300 of the pictures in the book “Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s-1950s.” Together, they offer intimate glimpses into romantic lives that would likely have remained hidden.

现在，他们出版了含有超过300张的照片的《爱：一部关于相爱的男人们的摄影史，1850年代至1950年代》中，他们提供了可能一直隐藏的浪漫生活的亲密一瞥。

“This book means, for the first time, that these people, these couples, get to speak for themselves,” Nini said. “They couldn't do it when they were alive, but they can do it now, and I think that's really powerful.”

“这本书意味着，第一次，这些人，这些情侣，可以为自己说话，”尼尼说。“他们活着的时候做不到，但他们现在可以做到，我认为这真的很强大。”

Given that many of the images come from a time when taking, developing or keeping such photos could pose a significant risk to one's personal safety – or even freedom – the pictures also represent individual acts of bravery, he added.

他补充说，鉴于许多图片来自于拍摄、冲洗或保存此类照片可能对个人安全甚至自由构成重大风险的时代，这些图片也代表了个人的勇敢行为。

“These couples did something very risky because they really cared about each other. They memorialized their feelings with these photographs, and then had to hide them forever,” he said.

“这些情侣做了一些非常冒险的事情，因为他们真的很在乎对方。他们用这些照片纪念了自己的感情，然后不得不永远把它们藏起来。”他说。

The photos show young couples that could have only dreamed of the freedoms afforded to Nini and Treadwell, who wed unofficially in 1992 (and then legally 14 years later, after Massachusetts became the first US state to permit same-sex marriage).

这些照片展示了年轻的情侣们，他们只能梦想着像尼尼和崔德威尔那样得到自由。尼尼和崔德威尔在1992年非正式地结婚（14年后，在马萨诸塞州成为美国第一个允许同性婚姻的州后，他们又合法地结婚了）。

Nonetheless, their collection shows historical examples of men exchanging rings and partaking in informal wedding ceremonies. In one image, believed to be from the turn of the 20th century, a young pair are seen holding a sign reading, “Not married but willing to be.”

尽管如此，他们的收藏品还是展示了历史上男人交换戒指和参加非正式婚礼仪式的例子。在一张据信是20世纪初的图片中，一对年轻的情侣举着一块牌子，上面写着“没有结婚但希望可以”。

As well as showing the evolution of attitudes, hairstyles and fashion through the decades, the images also chart the development of photography as a medium. The collection's oldest pictures were made using early forms of camera, and include ambrotypes, which were produced on glass, and daguerreotypes, which appeared on metal plates.

除了展示几十年来人们的态度、发型和时尚的演变外，这些图片还描绘了摄影作为一种媒介的发展历程。藏品中最古老的照片是用早期的相机制作的，包括在玻璃上制作的伏版照片和在金属板上制作的达盖尔版照片。

The archive travels through to the emergence of paper photography and then photo booths, which, like the various shots taken in the reflections of mirrors, eliminated the need to confide in a photographer.

档案中讲述了从纸质相片的兴起，及随后照相亭的浮现，它们就像在镜子的反射下拍摄的各种照片，省去了向摄影师吐露心声的需要。

And while Nini and Treadwell know next to nothing about their subjects, they know even less about where the physical photos have been in the decades since.

而尼尼和崔德威尔对他们的拍摄对象几乎一无所知，对几十年来实物照片的去向更是一无所知。

“Some of the pictures have creases in them, so perhaps they were folded and put in a wallet, while some are pristine, where they had been tucked in a book or hidden away in a drawer,” Treadwell said.

“有些照片上有褶皱，所以可能是被折叠后放进了钱包里，而有些则是原封不动的，它们曾被塞进书里或藏在抽屉里，”崔德威尔说。

“It's astonishing to us to wonder what that journey was – not only for the couple but for the photograph being passed along. Was it shared by friends? Was it celebrated by a family? How did it make its way into our hands?”

“我们很惊讶，不知道他们的旅程是什么样子的——不仅是对这些情侣，也包括这些照片的流传。是朋友们分享的吗？是一家人一起庆祝的吗？它是怎么落到我们手里的？”

It is, therefore, left to the viewer to imagine the stories behind each photo. And the breadth of positive responses to the collection is testament to the universality of love, the pair said.

因此，要让观众去想象每张照片背后的故事。两人表示，这套作品得到的积极回应的广度也证明了爱的普遍性。

“It's very heart-warming and gratifying to know that it's meaningful, and that this spans from someone who's 18 or 20 right up to grandparents who are looking at (the pictures) because their grandchildren are gay. Or it's an elderly gay person, or straight people – the whole gamut,” Treadwell said.

“知道这是有意义的，很温暖也很欣慰，从18岁或20岁的人到看(照片)的祖父母，因为他们的孙子是同性恋。或者是老年同性恋者，或者是异性恋者——所有人都可以。”崔德威尔说。

“The message of our book is not about sexuality at all,” Nini added. “Our position is that love doesn't have a sexuality – it's universal.”

“我们这本书的信息根本不是关于性的，”尼尼补充道。“我们的立场是，爱没有性——它是普世的。”

Title - 标题
Loving

Subtitle - 副标题
A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s

Author - 作者
Texts by Nugh Nini & Neal Treadwell, and Paolo Maria Noseda

Price - 价格
€49

ISBN
978-88-7439-928-4

Website - 网站
5 Continents Editions