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Dianora Niccolini 25 years ago gay magazines were full of photographic images of sexy men. Thus, the male nude became stigmatized. Photographing the male nude was not considered an art form but rather was relegated to homoerotic pornography. Homosexual men had always photographed their lovers (and other men willing to pose for them) since the onset of photography. Few women dared and even less showed their work publicly. It was at this time that one woman emerged as a pioneer and one of the most important trend setters of the late 20th century; Dianora Niccolini In 1975, she presented THE MALE NUDE, which at that time was strictly taboo. The exhibition broke many rules. Heads were cropped to make the images look timeless and impersonal, lot of close-ups including onešs of the penis photographed in idyllic settings. By using the above techniques and often placing models in non-threatening environments like nature, she seduced the viewer to look at the naked man. Favorable reviewed by Gene Thornton in The Sunday New York Times of December 7, 1975 wrote , the male nude in photography was finally legitimized and accepted by the art community after much criticism. One of her first male models was an Afro-American body builder. His photographs have been included in many photographic anthologies and were also widely exhibited in the mid seventies and pre dated Mapplethorpe's images of body builders by several years. In 1978, the year she met first Robert Mapplethorpe, 5 of her male nude photos were presented in a very controversial art exhibit at the Marcuse Pfeifer gallery. In spite of this, she continued to exhibit her male nudes and the reviews continued to be favorable Several years later Robert Mapplethorpe surfaced in association with Sam Wagstaff, a well-respected collector of photography. Wagstaff arranged a simultaneous exhibition of Mapplethorpešs photographs at the 3 most prestigious places in the NYC Art scene - The Robert Samuel gallery, the Miller gallery and the International Center of Photography. This propelled Mapplethorpe to a super star status. Selections of Dianorašs works were published in WOMEN OF VISION in 1982. Several exhibits followed in New York and Provincetown. By 1984, her career as a medical photographer had come to an end and in the summer of that year she introduced for the first time the mermale ( half male and half fish) in the Coney Island parade. Between 1979 to 1984 Dianora served as the first president of THE PROFESSIONAL WOMEN PHOTOGRAPHERS. Under her leadership, PWP became recognized as a leading professional organization for women photographers. Throughout the 80šs and 90šs major anthologies, greeting cards and posters were published worldwide and continued to influence a new generation of photographers. Diannorašs reputation as the female pioneer in photography of the male nude was re-established by David Leddick when he included 15 photographs and the cover of his book THE MALE NUDE published by Taschen in 1998, one of the most comprehensive historical surveys on the male nude. He also included photographs in the male nude books that followed including Men in the Sun and BIG FUN WITH BILLY. In 1998 she had a one woman mini- retrospective at the Throckmorton Fine Art gallery in New York city.
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