Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Jim French Polaroids

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor: Jim French Polaroids collects vintage Polaroid studies of the male figure made between 1964 and 1967, offering an intimate, working view of pre-Stonewall underground photography.

Published by Antinous Press in 2013 as a limited first-edition hardcover, the 144-page volume reproduces French's Polaroids of soldiers, sailors, cowboys, and other archetypally masculine figures on pictorial boards with a dust jacket, letting the images stand with no accompanying text. French made the photographs as working references for the homoerotic drawings he sold through his mail-order company, Luger and Arion, turning to the instant format because commercial photo labs of the era would not reliably process, and could report, explicitly gay imagery.

French built on this practice through the 1960s: in 1967 he bought out his business partner and, under the pseudonym Rip Colt, founded Colt Studio, which became one of the most influential producers of physique photography, drawing, and film of the era. This volume of early Polaroids offers a rare look at the working method behind French's later, more polished Colt output.