James Bidgood

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James Bidgood ( born March 28, 1933 in Madison , Wisconsin , USA ; † before or on January 31, 2022 in New York City ) was an American costume designer , photographer and filmmaker . His only film, Pink Narcissus , from 1971 made him known worldwide. It is still considered a milestone in artistic gay films and one of the most important independent films .

Life

Bidgood was born in Madison, Wisconsin in 1933 to caretakers and had one brother. Even as a child he was considered a loner and as a teenager he was already designing his first costumes for the school theater. At the age of 18 he came to New York City because he wanted to try his luck there as a musical actor . He has acted in a number of Off-Broadway productions and performed regularly as a transvestite at the legendary Club 82 on Manhattan's East Fourth Street. He also worked there as a costume designer. This was followed by a job as a window dresser and studying at the Parsons School of Design. He was also employed as the costume designer for New York's annual Mardi Gras , where he created lavish costumes. Bidgood's art as a filmmaker and photographer was shaped by the Ziegfeld Follies , the Folies Bergère , and the photographs of George Quaintance , an early pioneer of gay nude photography in the United States in the 1920s, all of which he greatly admired.

He started his own career as a freelance photographer between 1963 and 1970. He primarily photographed male nudes, many of which were published in Joe Weider 's so-called "bodybuilder magazines" , such as The young physique , Muscleboy , Demi- Gods and Muscle Teens . Thanks to these particularly artistic images, he is now regarded as one of the most important gay photographers of the 20th century. During this time he also came into contact with film for the first time and shot two commercials for the shoe manufacturer Capezio, in which something of his idiosyncratic, artistic-avant-garde style can already be recognized. The costumes he designed specifically for the shoe line promoted in the spot are on display today at the Museum of the City of New York .

He called his photo studio, located in his own apartment, Les Folies des Hommes . His most famous models were Johnny Coombs, Jay Garvin and most notably Bobby Kendall , who became his life partner and with whom he lived from 1964 to 1969.

He then spent six years with Kendall shooting what is now the cult film Pink Narcissus , released in 1971, a masterpiece of “gay kitsch ”. Many other film projects never materialized, leaving Pink Narcissus as Bidgood's only film.

He fell into a deep depression and destroyed almost all the negatives and unreleased film scenes with Bobby Kendall. He later worked again as a costume designer. A few photographs, some of which were taken in the 1980s, are still awaiting publication. His work is usually tangible in opulent illustrated books. Bidgood made few public appearances and there are few recordings of him; some interviews are available in magazines. He mostly appeared at gay galas or festivals. In his last years he lived a reclusive and impoverished life in New York City. Occasionally, Bidgood had to accept photo assignments in order to support himself even in old age.

Bidgdood died at the end of January 2022 at the age of 88, as announced by friends and companions on various social networks.

The movie Pink Narcissus

The film Pink Narcissus was shot between 1964 and 1970 in Bidgood's private quarters and loft apartment . There was no script and many shots and scenes are shot with the most primitive means and in the simplest of ways that were cheap yet effective. For filming he used an 8mm Bolex camera . Various off-Broadway actors were also cast in the film, which starred Bobby Kendall as Pan. The well-known playwright , theatre, television and film actor Charles Ludlam also played, although he was not mentioned by name and only had brief appearances. The film was released in 1971 by Sherpix Videos, which also sponsored Bidgood for some time. Since Sherpix Bidgood refused to work on the final film editing due to time constraints, the perfectionist Bidgood did not want the film to be released under his name. Pink Narcissus therefore wore the pseudonym "Anonymus" in the credits. For a long time, Andy Warhol was thought to be the film's author, but it was only in the mid-1990s that Bidgood was discovered as the film's author. It is often assumed that the leather-wearing motorcyclist in the film who takes on the bullfighter Kendall is Bidgood himself and that he made a cameo appearance as a result .

In terms of content, the film is a sensation, because it was and is the only film by this filmmaker, which made him famous within the gay scene and beyond and served the wishes and needs of gay audiences in the 1970s. The film shows six imaginary journeys of the male prostitute Pan to different places of his imagination. Pan finds her way through various exaggerated and kitschy scenes and is repeatedly confronted with questions such as one's own depravity, innocence or youth and all of this in the context of a question about the guilt of a society that cannot admit how depraved it is she actually seems to be.

The film is equipped with romantic, highly artistic and, above all, erotic images. Although Kendall is sometimes seen naked, the film is neither obscene nor pornographic, at least from today's perspective, which was viewed differently at the time. It was an attempt to capture gay dreams and fantasies in images, revealing an original, romantic, dreamy perspective that embraces everything human from innocence to destruction, and is a homage to the beauty of the male body. Pink Narcissus was released by Sherpix Videos in 1971. The 71-minute film has also been released on DVD.

James Bidgood's models

Bidgood has produced a number of prominent models. Even if nothing is known about the people behind the pseudonym , for example whether they are still alive or what their real names are, he succeeded in turning many of these young men into idols of the time through his photos. In addition to the legendary Bobby Kendall , there were above all Jay Garvin, whom he met in a transvestite club around 1963, Johnny Coombs, Bruce Kirkman, Larry Perrier, Shane Davidson and above all Bruce MacNeill, who was considered the "second Bobby Kendall" and actually looks quite similar to this one. The models are never completely naked, but are photographed in very tight-fitting pants or down to their pubic hair ; therefore these are not pornographic images. Research on James Bidgood in the period after his death, for example from the estate , will have to produce new insights into this "golden era" of " kitschy glitz ".

Bidgood's most well-known image, which has also made it into the mainstream , is a pan or faun seated on a tree stump and playing a flute .

trivia

  • In 2010, an independent theater company in Los Angeles performed the eccentric play "Life on Mars: The James Bidgood Story", an idiosyncratic adaptation of Bidgood's life and work, to an almost empty house.
  • In 1999, a documentary was made about James Bidgood entitled " The Gay Dreams of James Bidgood ", one of the filmmaker's few appearances on celluloid.
  • On March 28, 2013 he celebrated his 80th birthday, but the press in the US "slept through" this event, the mainstream and gay media.
  • Bidgood's cinematography is also often compared to that of Kenneth Anger , another major independent filmmaker with gay subjects. But Anger has become much better known and more successful than Bidgood.
  • Bidgood is also the author of the (yet) unperformed play FAG - The pretty good life of Jimmy Bundle .

aftermath

The film, like Bidgood's entire, idiosyncratic creative process, has had a major influence on the work of various other artists to this day.

Star photographers David LaChapelle , Andy Warhol and Pierre et Gilles are heavily influenced by Bidgood in the avant-garde they represent. Many contemporary music videos are also influenced, whether consciously or unconsciously, by his art.

literature

  • Bruce Benderson: Bidgood . Taschen, Cologne 2009.

web links

itemizations

  1. ↑ Trey Speegle, #RIP: “Pink Narcissus” Creator & Queer Icon, James Bidgood , worldofwonder.net, January 31, 2022, accessed February 1, 2022
personal data
SURNAME Bidgood, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer and director
BIRTH DATE March 28, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Madison
DATE OF DEATH before January 31, 2022
PLACE OF DEATH NYC