Photographer

Edwardian Men --History Replete

With his sepia-drenched depictions of overt male sexuality, James Spada revisits a time that should have been - by Michelle Hespe

(Reprinted from BLUE magazine, 2002)

If a photographer at the turn of last century wanted to depict male nudity, decorum decreed he retreat to the safety of classical poses, biblical themes and the judicious placement of foliage. This clash of moral and aesthetic imperatives gave Boston-based photographer James Spada a flash of inspiration--with his "Edwardian Men" series he wanted people to look upon the apparently vintage (yet occasionally tumescent) nudes and think, "My God, how did they get away with that?"

Spada has certainly captured the visual mood of the period, the odd tattoo and hairstyle notwithstanding. "I wanted to place masculine men into the feminine, decorative environment that characterized the Victorian era," he explained. "I find that dichotomy very interesting." The meticulous lighting and sepia tones complete the illusion; to look at Spada's nude men is to experience a Victorian vision that would never have seen the light of day.

Though he has worked as a photographer for over three decades, most of Spada's earlier work utilized colour. "With black and white, as opposed to colour, I am able to bring more creativity into the image. When I look at a nude in colour, it seems more like pornography to me." Photographing the nude is also a recent foray for Spada--it was only in 1996 that he commenced work on a series that comprises his latest book, Black & White Men. "My art is a celebration of beauty," he says. "There are people who take pictures of dead bodies or other shocking subjects, and that is their version of art -- but I am interested in recording beauty as I see it."

Spada has also spent many years recording beauty with words. An acclaimed celebrity biographer, he's produced best-selling tomes on Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Grace, Robert Redford, and Bette Davis among many others. Evidently, his ease with exploring subjects in literary terms translates well to the camera, for there is a pervading sense of serenity in his male nudes. "My ability to make people comfortable has helped me in both journalism and photography," Spada agrees. "My subjects come to trust me, because I am easy-going, yet they realize I am very serious about my art."

James Spada has been well known for his internationally best-selling biographies of Barbra Streisand, Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford, Princess Grace, Bette Davis, Peter Lawford, Bette Midler, Jackie Onassis, and others. His eighteenth book, "John and Caroline, Their Lives in Pictures", is currently in bookstores and has received uniformly positive reviews. In February 2004 St. Martin's Press will publish his latest biography, Julia Roberts. For more information on this and James Spada's other books, click here: www.jamesspada.com

Over the last five years, Jim has also become equally renowned for his evocative photographic studies of the male nude. He had been an amateur photographer since high school. After he moved to Boston from Los Angeles, he enrolled in the New England School of Photography's evening workshops division in 1997, where he studied black-and-white darkroom techniques with Nick Johnson, the studio nude figure with Christina Hajosy, and color printmaking with Tom Petit. It was at that time that he was inspired to begin his project "Black & White Men."

Spada had his first one-man show in August 1998 at the Against the Grain Gallery in the artists' colony of Wellfleet on Cape Cod, and another at Francesca's Gallery in Boston's South End in December of the same year. His third one-man show hung in the New England School of Photography's prestigious Gallery One in Boston from January 17 through February 18, 2000. Twenty images from his current project "Edwardian Men" were on display at the Radiant Light Gallery in Portland, Maine in September and October 2001.

"I've been taking pictures since I was a teenager," Spada says, "but it took a back seat to my celebrity books. Now I want to be known as a hyphenate, a writer-photographer. Photographing people is very much like writing about them, except that I'm creating the portrait with light rather than words. Light is as much a subject for me as the model. Some of these men emerge from darkness into the light. Others are bathed in it, seeming to take comfort from it. Still others respond to the illumination with pride, showing off their beauty to it as they would to a lover."

"Black & White Men," a hardcover book of sixty images from this project, is now available for purchase. Jim's new project, "Edwardian Men" ( which has been featured in "Blue" magazine's February 2002 and May 2003 issues and will be included in the book "Dreamboys 4" to be published November 2003), will be published in book form in 2004.

Jim and his partner of five years,Terry Brown, met when Terry modeled for Jim. They live in a Victorian house in Natick, Massachusetts, twenty miles west of Boston.

Jorge 1  

Jorge 2

Michael  

Mike

Jorge 3  

Thomas 2

Jorge 4