Famous Gay Photographers Series - George Dureau

 


New Orleans artist George Dureau (b. 1930) may be best known for his paintings and drawings, but his black-and-white photographs, often of black youths, street trade, dwarfs, and amputees, are not only striking in their own right, but also have had an immense influence on the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, among others.
Although Mapplethorpe adopted many of the same compositions and poses utilized by Dureau, the effects of the two men's work are quite different. Whereas Mapplethorpe's photography aspires to a kind of classical objectivity, Dureau's is warmer and more involved, evincing compassion as well as desire.