The New Documentary “100 Years of Men In Love: The Accidental Collection” Unearths Vintage Gay Photos from 1850s-1950s

April 8, 2022
TOMMY

One of my favorite things I own in my apartment is a book called Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s that sits on my coffee table. It’s a big, thick book with a seemingly endless supply of truly vintage photos showing men who were gay in a time when you could be arrested, fired, or killed for being so. The book is of my favorite possessions for a number of reasons, but above all because it was given to me by one of my favorite people in the world: our editor in chief. I also love it for a confluence of other reasons, as well—my love of vintage anything, my love of books, my love of gorgeous men, my abject homosexuality, etc. Well, as if I couldn’t love this book any more, they just announced that a documentary version of it is coming out. The documentary is titled, 100 Years of Men In Love: The Accidental Collection. The trailer is out and we are so excited to share it with you, as well as do a deep-dive into what the documentary is and what makes it so special.

100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection details the process that Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell went through in the creation of the book. What’s so incredible about this documentary is finding out the wide range of places that the found the photos. They were found everywhere you could imagine: shoe boxes in the backs of closets, local flea markets, family photo albums, estate sales, and even old suitcases. Directed by Emmy-winning actor-producer David Millbern, and with commentary from curators Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, the documentary showcases the beauty and universality of our love.

One of the things that struck me the most about the trailer for the documentary (as well as the book, for that matter) is just the profound amount of photos that were discovered, and the incredible variety of mediums, as well. In 2022, we pretty much know three ways to create pictures: digital cameras/smartphones, photo booth printouts, and developed photos from Polaroids/rolls of film. But in the late 1800s, the technologies were still being figured out. This incredible collection includes ambrotypes, cabinet cards, daguerreotypes, glass negatives, tin types, photo postcards, photo strips, photomatics, and snapshots.

But if Queer love was secretive, how do they know that some of the people are actually gay and not just two friends taking a picture together? The book’s description says, “the subjects were identified as couples by that unmistakable look in the eyes of two people in love - impossible to manufacture or hide. They were also recognized by body language - evidence as subtle as one hand barely grazing another - and by inscriptions, often coded.” The “hand barely grazing each other” is one of the things I love the most about this documentary and these photos. It seems like the 1850 equivalent of someone’s knee pressing just a bit too firmly against your own on the subway, or the glance that just holds a bit too long from a stranger.

I am also astonished at the fact that so many of them were stumbled upon accidentally (hence “the accidental collection”). In the trailer to the documentary, the authors (who are a couple, as well) talk about how “never in a million years” did they think they’d ever collect anything, let alone thousands of photos from the 1800s to the 1950s. One of the earliest stashes they found was in a box at their church in Texas. WHAT?! Yes. Their *church* in TEXAS. They were attending church in Texas, when they decided to explore the church a bit more. It had booths that were filled with miscellaneous miscellany, and it was there that they stumbled upon boxes filled with random photos. One of the photos they found was of a clearly gay couple from 1927.

From Texas, the two moved to NYC, where their interest in photos of gay couples continued. They found another photo of a couple from 1947. As they say in the trailer for the documentary, when they found the second one, to them it felt like “the second one of the only two that existed in the world. Then there’s three…” Once the process started, it just didn’t stop and continued to grow over the years.

You get the gist. And I hope you see why I’m so excited for this documentary! If you are in the market for an incredible book, I can’t recommend Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love 1850s-1950s enough. But if you’re more of a “skipping the book and waiting for the movie” kind of person, then I invite you to watch 100 Years of Men in Love: The Accidental Collection. It premieres March 25th and will be streaming exclusively on HereTV. And since you’ve been SUCH a patient reader… here’s the trailer I promised!