Rotimi Fani-Kayode | A Hard Man is Good to Find! | The Photographer's Gallery

Hales is delighted to announce the inclusion of Rotimi Fani-Kayode in A Hard Man is Good to Find! at The Photographer's Gallery, London, through 11 June 2023. 

 

A Hard Man is Good to Find! celebrates a clandestine visual culture of men's bodies that emerged in the post-war period, during a time when making and distributing such images was a criminal offence.

 

This exhibition highlights key areas of London which were a focus for men seeking out men to photograph. It maps out a territory of risk and possibility across Highgate, between Chelsea and Wellington Barracks, in Soho, Brixton, Portobello and Euston. Catalogues, print ordering sheets, personal albums, magazines and publications explore how these photographs were circulated, exchanged and shared. 

 

While the 1955 Wolfenden Report and the 1967 Sexual Offences Act marked the partial decriminalisation of gay sexual activity, prompting gay liberation and the fight for social equality; any depiction of male nudity which suggested homosexuality remained subject to the 1857 Obscene Publications Act.A Hard Man is Good to Find! is curated by Alistair O'Neill, professor of Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London).

 

 

Rotimi Fani-Kayode

The Photographer's Gallery