One thing is for sure: The world of gay porn wouldn't be what it is today without Jim French, the founder of legendary Colt Studio. The multi–faced styles of his movies and photo works influenced many directors and photographers. His models have always been a perfect example of hunky maleness; Jim French's pictures of them are always stunning, no matter whether he shoots them in beefy porn style or in the classic vintage look of the 50s.
Jim French Diaries illuminates the many faces of Colt Studio not only with countless photos but also with a lot of informative text revealing the exciting history behind the label.
One aspect of the growing importance of the publishing house of Bruno Gmünder Verlag is the direction that this book JIM FRENCH DIARIES: THE CREATOR OF COLT STUDIOS demonstrates. Though widely regarded as the pinnacle of male art and photography books, we are now seeing the appearance of novels and books about the history of the development of gay art.
JIM FRENCH DIARIES is richly endowed with photographs and drawings as one would expect, but to a have 352 page book measuring 10 ½” by 11 ¼” equally filled with historic data and interviews between the featured artist and his model and others is makes this a book to savor. Editor Robert Mainardi keeps the flow rolling as we discover the beginnings of Jim French, his transition through illustrative drawings form the figure (wisely, the book supplies not only French’s drawings but in many are photographs in black and white of the models he used in position), his movement into photography of the male nude and his founding of the famous Colt Studio, possible the most avant garde male adult film industry company internationally.
One thing is for sure: The world of gay porn wouldn't be what it is today without Jim French, the founder of legendary Colt Studio. The multi-faced styles of his movies and photo works influenced many directors and photographers. His models have always been a perfect example of hunky maleness; Jim French's pictures of them are always stunning, no matter whether he shoots them in beefy porn style or in the classic vintage look of the 50s. Jim French Diaries illuminates the many faces of Colt Studio not only with countless photos but also with a lot of informative text revealing the exciting history behind the label.
Jim French (born July 14, 1932) is an American photographer who under the pseudonym Rip Colt created Colt Studio to publish, what were to become, his iconic homoerotic images in the books, magazines and calendars that presented French's work exclusively and set a new standard for idealized masculinity in photography. French began drawing and photographing male erotica in the 1960s, and his first published book, Man, was in 1972. Other books include Another Man, Jim French Men, Quorum, Opus Decorum, Masc., The Art of Jim French and The Art of the Male Nude.
According to encyclopedic data ‘French was formally trained at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art from 1950 to 1954 and went on active duty in the United States Army in 1955, having been in the reserves for two years prior to his enlisting. He was honorably discharged from the service in 1957. French settled in New York and pursued a successful career in fashion illustration. At the suggestion of an Army contact who had seen some of his early, mostly unpublished homoerotic drawings done under the name Arion, he and French formed a partnership to start a mail order company they named "Luger." This brand was chosen because of the strong suggestions of masculinity associated with the German Luger pistol.
While the Arion drawings had been rather romantic and glamorized sketches of Fire Island life and similar scenes (certainly hinting at the paintings of two of his favorite artists, Petty and Varga), the drawings he began to produce for "Luger" made a considered transition to decidedly more masculine subjects like bikers, cowboys, wrestlers and other familiar macho figures. When his art was featured on the cover and inside several issues of Mars, sales increased dramatically. Because of legal restraints of the time, the earliest works did not contain frontal nudity but were nonetheless highly erotic and humorously creative in their suggestiveness. He also began offering prints of photographs he had taken as references for his drawings, and these too sold well.
Eventually French’s partner bought out his share of Luger, freeing French and a new partner, Lou Thomas, to establish another business called COLT Studio (again, a reference to a firearm, although before long, this image association was scrapped in favor of a young stallion logo). Having worked for nearly a year to produce the first drawings and photographs to be offered by the new company, Colt was begun in late 1967. Once more the images were offered in sets of prints by mail and the company quickly became successful. But after fifteen years in New York, often traveling to California to take advantage of the weather and abundance of models, French decided to make a permanent move West. Finally, in 1974 he bought out his partner’s share of the business leaving Lou Thomas to start, briefly, his own company (Target Studio) and French made his home in the Hollywood Hills. From the COLT Studio offices in the San Fernando Valley he continued to run what was the most successful physique photography company since Bob Mizer’s Athletic Model Guild. For thirty-six years COLT Studio offered the singularly iconic, erotic and highly influential photographs for which French has become known worldwide.’
But enough of the history, because as important as this data is, it is the manner in which it is presented in tandem with the innumerable magnificent reproductions of French’s ’Luger’ art as well as a full array of the many masculine and macho models he made into idols that makes this book so unique and important. Years in the making, this book will likely become one of the more important textbooks for Gender Studies, now that that major has been ensconced in institutions of higher learning around the world. And lest we forget, in addition the book is overflowing with sensual imagery from over a long period of time. Highly recommended and well worth the price.
Grady Harp
