Unapproved School by Royale Studio

Royale Studio - Unapproved School

The mitchmen Royale Studio Open Archive, a project to compile a comprehensive collection of images by the legendary 50's pioneers of British gay photography has now transferred from the mitchmen blog to a new dedicated blog and gallery. The site is still in the process of building ,but you can see what has been created so far at 

The Royale Studio Open Archive

Military Men by Carr

Henry Marvell Carr - Sgt Montague one of the Desert Rats

 Two portraits of military men from a British artist I hadn't known about before.

They capture the masculine charm of soldiers and sailors rather well. 

Henry Marvell Carr - An Ordinary Telegraphist

These images came from Uniformes et Stereotypes blog which is a fantastic resource of retro imagery regarding all branches of the military and also discussions of the work and inspirations of some important, vintage gay artists.

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These images also complement the ongoing series at mitchmen blog featuring the imagery of the vintage, British 'Royale Studio' from the 1950/60's. Royale Studio was founded by Basil Clavering as beefcake photographic studio, but they also produced 'storyettes', which were photo series which often featured military scenarios of sailors and soldiers getting into tight clothes and mischief. The actors were often, reputedly, serving members of the British armed forces. As an adjunct to that series I am publishing, bit by bit, my entire collection of Royale images collected from the internet over the years to form an open archive. Two more 'new' Royale images turned up this week in my browsing.

Love

xth13teenx - A Different World

 The moment in which military comradeship turns into affection and love is beautifully captured in this image rendered by xth13teenx. It's part of a grand series which imagines Chris Redfield, the legendary character from the 'Resident Evil' games franchise, falling in love with his colleague Piers Nivans and setting up home with him. Their romance is charted through all the mundane things couples do together and their loving intimacies and it's all set against the context of the dangerous tasks they are sent on and the demanding physical training it involves.

This Art which portrays a relationship between two strong, gay men as complete, joyous and life-enhancing is refreshing and very, very welcome. 

By way of contrast, Steve Walker's art which I featured at mitchmen last year, though pretty and romantic, always seems to have an undercurrent of loneliness and doubt.

There's a large gallery of work by xth13teenx at Deviant Art

Mysterious Face

Michael Egan by Michael Stokes

Sunglasses can have a mysterious beautifying effect on some faces,

highlighting lips and jawline.

Photo courtesy of Michael Stokes

click on 'faces' label below for more

Military Style

Chase Bauer

Over at my regular (adult) blog I've been running a lengthy article about the military style photographic sets produced by Royale Studio in the 50's/60's and making a plea for a modern photographer to revive the genre. This photo gives a glimpse of what might result. Chase Bauer could just be a soldier with those khaki trousers, a bare chested warrior crossing a watery obstacle in pursuit of the enemy or freshening up after the march.

Military Shorts

This period picture illustrates the ongoing themes of shorts and military discipline in the review of Royale Studios at Mitchell's main blog. Bizarre black humour too. Themes that are grist to the mill in Mitchell's Art as you can see if you visit my Yahoo Group.

Military Connections

A marvellous image of a soldier on the march to complement my 'Fortunes of War' story at the Yahoo Group and the Review of the, now defunct, 'Guys in Uniform' Studio at the blog. This is a well built man who would grace any clothing but I love the way his sleeves are rolled up an extra inch or so to show of his biceps, the framing of his neck by the neatly arranged shirt and not least the meticulously deformed beret. Mangling headgear is something of an art form in the armed forces, transforming a mundane slightly ridiculous garment into one that pleases and smoulders with character.

Someone asked what country do these men fight for? (see comments).
The answer is Holland, their equivalent of the marines and if you search images you'll discover they are a splendid  body of men (see below)

I surrender! That ringed cap on the end of his gun looks lethal!

'Fortunes of War' starts at 'mitchmen'

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Mitchell - Soldiers Nightmare

It hadn't been an easy tour. The locals were at each others throats, crazy stuff. You'd never have thought they'd lived alongside each other for hundreds of years. We got in between them. We had to. Both sides thought we were helping their enemies. They were more than happy to vent their hatred on us. Non-violent protest they called it. That's a laugh! It's all in a days work for us. Confronting organised, angry civilian rioters. But it's a soldier's nightmare.

This is an extract from the first episode of Mitchell's story "Fortunes of War" which is being published in installments at the 'mitchmen' Yahoo Group.

Joining is free and you get access to a large collection of Mitchell's adult work.

Scene setting for Mitchell's Fortunes of War story

This picture of British soldiers on peacekeeping duties in a bleak urban landscape helps set the scene for my new mitchmen story, 'Fortunes of War'. The jaunty berets and macho hardware contribute to the imagery but I dispense with camouflage which (unsurprisingly!) is not conducive to clarity of detail in black and white drawn pictures.

Mitchell's 'Fortunes of War' starts at the Yahoo! Group in a few days.

Fortunes of War by Mitchell

Starting soon at 'mitchmen' at Yahoo!

Mitchell's new story is called "Fortunes of War"
A tale of unconventional enemies

Join for free at 'mitchmen'

More Verlato at mitchmen

Verlato - Still Fighting

I love this twisting, arching body and the army fatigues don't do any harm to the image either,
this is an artist who loves men.

Verlato - Gator

Another striking image showing the male form to advantage.
This picture is less complex than others but equally surreal.

See more by the artist at Nicola Verlato

A new artist

Verlato - Enduring Freedom

I stumbled across this artist recently, new to me. I enjoy these depictions of soldiers, the tension of the bodies and drama in the poses is striking. Much of this artist's work is rather more surreal than this and you can see Dali in the sensual texturing of the bodies and the floating poses.

My next story at the Yahoo group has a military theme too. Should start soon.

See more by the artist in the next post and at Nicola Verlato