Love through a lens: 10 epic images of gay couples in love from 1850s-1950s
A new historic photo book spotlights same-sex couples in heady, delirious love. Here, Attitude chats to its creators about the mysteries of love and why they have “more in common with the subjects of our photos” than the selfie generation of today
“The unmistakable look of love between two people,” says Hugh Nini, is the common thread among he and Neal Treadwell’s, 4,000+image archive of pre-Stonewall male same-sex couples.
“It’s something you can’t hide if you’re experiencing it,” he adds. “It can’t be manufactured if you’re not. It’s also not something that AI can manufacture because AI isn’t human.”
The real-life couple first shared their collection with the public in 2020, and the release of LOVING: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s–1950s. It offered unprecedented insight into a world seldom seen, when such love was illegal, at a time when social disapproval or even legal punishment loomed.
Now they’re doing it all over again with LOVING II: More Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s–1950s. Expect ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, tintypes, cabinet cards, postcards, photo strips, and snapshots.
That said, the book is about far more than the history of photography or even historical record; it’s an act of remembrance and resistance.
“Our book isn’t about ‘queerness’ specifically,” Neal furthermore tells Attitude. “It’s about love – romantic love. And love, to us, isn’t queer or straight; it’s just love. This emotion is felt and shared by everyone, queer or otherwise, in the same way. There is, in our eyes, no delineation between the love experienced by men and women, women and women, or men and men. Heterosexuals don’t have first-hand experience of being gay, and we don’t have first-hand experience of being straight.
“But we do all have first-hand experience of being in love. And even though this may sound very specific and planned out, it wasn’t. It’s just something that we did instinctually without any conscious thought.
“The messages and meanings only became clear to us as we began publishing our first book.”
This is an excerpt from a feature appearing in the 2025 Attitude Awards issue. To see the full feature, order your copy of the Attitude Awards 2025 issue now or read it alongside 15 years of back issues on the free Attitude app.
