Physique Photography and Illustration in Post-War Britain (1945-1967)

At the current, Will is putting together a research proposal that aims to examine physique photography and illustration in Post-War Britain and its relationship to homosexuality.

Understanding that there is a vast range of scholarship on homosexuality, but not on its relationship to physique photography, the research will place post-war queer photography in its wider socio-political context, thinking about its relationship to the emerging homosexual cultural network in Britain after the Second World War. The work aims to examine the oeuvres of photographers such as John S Barrington and William Dominque (Lon of London), and will take a queer historical-materialist approach to do so. Building upon Will’s previous study, this research will contribute to the existing field by offering a sustained art historical analysis of physique photography and its presence in post-war Britain.