The Art of Guglielmo Plüschow

Notes Alistair Crawford in the Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Photographers:

Wilhelm Plüschow (1852-1930) was born in Mecklenburg, Germany in 1852. By the 1870s he had a photographic studio in Naples trading in studio portraits and occasional journalism. He was a first cousin to Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden whom he assisted in turning his interest in photography into a business in Taormina, Sicily in 1888. By now both were photographing the male nude.

Influenced by Gloeden's style, by the time Plüschow moved to Rome as 'Guglielmo Plüschow,' he was producing male and female nudes which gained a reputation throughout Europe and America for overt homoerotica.

Much praised by author John Addington Symonds who lived in Rome, Plüschow, along with his Sicilian assistant, Vicenzo Galdi [left] (1856-1931), often avoided the more romantic trappings of Gloeden's classical props, in favor of realism, with an emphasis on the sexual promise of male peasant youth.

Forerunners of Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975) and his love of ragazzi, Plüschow and Galdi's overt depictions of potent male sexuality, many said pornography, landed both of them in trouble and Plüschow was forced to return to Berlin and obscurity in 1910.

Even now, while Gloeden can still be read as the poetic homoerotic dream, Plüschow, with his once only photographed models in highly suggestive poses, still challenges and he rarely enters the directories. However, he can be regarded as a pioneer of contemporary gay culture, perhaps in time more relevant than Gloeden.

– Alistair Crawford

See also: The Art of Vilela Valentin | Dante Cirquero | Nebojsa Zdravkovic | Brenden Sanborn | Wilhelm von Gloeden | Richard Haines | John MacConnell | Leo Rydell Jost | Jim Ferringer | Juliusz Lewandowski | Felix d'Eon | Herbert List | Joe Ziolkowski

Related Off-site Links:
The Arcadian Shepherds: Vincenzo Galdi, Wilhelm (Guglielmo) (von) Plüschow, and Wilhelm von Gloeden – Photography Now (2017).
Guglielmo Plüschow – Matt and Andrej Koymasky (The Living Room, February 23, 2012).