James Bidgood

• Name — James Bidgood • Birth Name — James Alan Bidgood • Born — 28 March 1933 • Birthplace — Stoughton, Wisconsin, U.S. • Died — 31 January 2022 • Place of death — New York City, U.S. • Occupation — * Artist • photographer • filmmaker • Notable Works — Pink Narcissus (1971)

section James Alan Bidgood was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin, and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. He moved to New York City in 1951, and attended Parsons The New School for Design in the late 1950s. His artistic output embraced a number of media and disciplines, including music, set and window design, and drag performance. He got his start performing at East Village drag club Club 82, using the stage name Terri Howe. His interests led him to photography and film, and it is for this work that he is most widely known. His photographs are distinguished by an aesthetic of high fantasy and camp, inspired by an early interest in Florenz Ziegfeld, Folies Bergère, and George Quaintance. He wanted to bring artistry to gay male erotic photography, believing that the genre at the time he started out had not been pushed to its limits. He explained in a 2005 interview: Bidgood released the film Pink Narcissus in 1971, after filming in his small apartment from 1963 to 1970. The film is a dialogue-free fantasy centered around a young and often naked man. The film took seven years to make, and Bidgood built all the sets and filmed the entire piece in his tiny apartment. He later removed his name from the film because he felt editors had changed his original vision. Consequently, the identity of the film's creator was only a matter of speculation for nearly three decades after its release, with Andy Warhol frequently floated as a candidate. It was not until 1998 that writer Bruce Benderson decided to investigate the matter, and eventually traced them to Bidgood, then living on 14th Street in Manhattan. Through a friend who was an agent, Benderson arranged publication of Bidgood's output under his own name for the first time and also wrote the first complete monograph on Bidgood, which was published by Taschen. Bidgood's film Pink Narcissus was re-released in 2003 by Strand Releasing. When the pornographic film industry began to blossom in the early 1970s, Bidgood signed with Hand in Hand Films, a burgeoning gay production company with only a handful of films to its name, to produce his second film. "Beyond These Doors" was to feature Bidgood's lush and colourful photography showcased in scenes of hardcore pornography. However, for unknown reasons, the film was only partially completed and is considered lost. One excerpt of an orgy scene from the film can be seen in the 1975 porn documentary "Good Hot Stuff," which showcases the footage under the working title "Baghdad." After the negative experience, Bidgood effectively left the film industry. When a profile on Bidgood was written by Artforum in 2019, the author noted that at the time of publishing the piece, he "lives in poverty in New York City." Bidgood's work is characterized by a heavy reliance on invention. His photographs feature elaborate sets built ground up from the materials of the theatre, fashion, design, and fine art. In a profile of the artist published in Aperture, Philip Gefter wrote, Many contemporary themes are found even in the earliest of Bidgood's work. Camp, identity, erotica, desire, marginality, and performance all figure heavily in his portraits of nude men. Bidgood's complex references to the theatre and performance seem to presage Queer articulations of Performance. His techniques, working processes, and masterful use of illusionistic color indicate both a mature understanding of his influences and goals and an important contrast to the art movements of the time the work was first created. In 1999, the art book publisher Taschen published a monograph of his work including biographical images and stills from his film. In 2005, Bidgood was honored with a Creative Capital grant which facilitated a return to art photography after a hiatus of nearly 40 years. His later projects include work for Christian Louboutin and Out magazine. In 2008, Taschen included an interview with Bidgood in its publication The Big Penis Book, and published his monograph in 2009. Bidgood's more recent work was featured in Out in February 2009. Bidgood was represented by ClampArt in New York City, as well as Larry Collins Fine Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Bidgood died from complications of COVID-19 at a Manhattan hospital, on January 31, 2022, at age 88. Bidgood is often credited as inspiration for photographic artists, including Pierre et Gilles and David LaChapelle. He was also an inspiration for and once collaborated with designer Christian Louboutin.

Bidgood met his partner Alan Blair in 1975. They were together for 10 years until Blair's death in 1985.

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