After a magnificently pink opening act, the Divine Diva pendulum swings brutally back in another direction, bringing us from the frills of a particular sort of femininity to the main drag of a specific masculinity. The images we have in our minds of what makes a man masculine have largely been created, coded, and curated by gay men – case in point is Herb Ritts and his photography featuring males.
From the iconic ‘Fred with Tires’ – the inspiration and aspiration for this series of pictures – to his video direction for Madonna and Janet Jackson, Ritts was a gay man whose visions conjured the icons of the 80’s and 90’s. His male forms were stereotypically masculine in their greasy garage play and nonchalant tossing of shirts. That a gay man should have molded the ideals and images of male beauty for the mainstream is only fitting, and the way he worked shirtless male models and a wardrobe of simplicity into the fashion world set the tone for the supermodel explosion to come.
Like most of the world, I was introduced to Herb’s work through Madonna and the iconic cover shots of her ‘True Blue‘ and ‘Like A Prayer‘ albums. Their alchemy created a different kind of magic, one that spoke to a young gay guy on a visceral plane. I remember finding solace in his work during the hot and trying recesses of a summer program at Brown University, where I felt entirely out of place and at odds with the surrounding of other young people my age. At every opportunity I’d escape from the studious pack and spend time in the nearby bookstore that had photo books by Herb Ritts for escapist perusal. His ‘M’ and ‘W’ volumes were not in my syllabus, but I bought them anyway and smuggled the beautiful black-cloth-bound tomes into my dorm room undetected by anyone else. Just being close to art in those days made me feel better about being in the world. Every little bit helped.
In those pages, I found the strength inherent in talent, the inspiration that weaved through raw beauty, and the early framing of what made for a powerful image. It wasn’t even something I could formulate into words – it spoke to me in a more primal manner, and I, to my own surprise, responded in primal kind.
“Do you know how sometimes you see a man, and you’re not sure if you want to get in his pants or if you want to cry? Not because you can’t have him; maybe you can. But you see right away something in him beyond having. You can’t screw your way into it, any more than you can get at the golden egg by slitting the goose. So you want to cry, not like a child, but like an exile who is reminded of his homeland.” – Mark Merlis
Wet, wily, wistful, wild – the men in the photographs whispered wanton wants into my all-too-willing youthful winsomeness. Whether I understood that, or had other wishes on my mind, I couldn’t – and I won’t – tell you. Some things are better left unsaid… as someone once sang.
The original physical version of The Divine Diva Tour Book: A Fairy’s Tale has the lyrics of ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ printed out to accompany these photos. The song has changed over the years, the way certain songs come to mean new things depending on whether we allow ourselves to grow along with them. Twenty years ago they meant something a little more tender, and ten years before that they were somehow even more precious. Time chisels away at our bodies, like sand blown relentlessly on stone. It slowly softens, insidiously erases, and gradually but entirely dismantles everything we once thought we were. Nothing – and no one – stands victoriously against time.
~ The Divine Diva Tour: A Fairy’s Tale ~
- Pink Frilly Fairy: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three
