Cadinot Berlioz symphonie fantastique

Photographs by Jean-Dan­iel Cad­i­­­not (1944-2008), the most original gay porn au­teur of the 1970s-1990s in France.

Starting as a theatrical photographer in the 1960s, Cad­inot began producing male nudes for the emerging gay erotic press in France in the early-1970s, then published his own one-off magazine-style albums, often organized around a theme and including texts positioning the photos as serious works of art. In the 1980s, Cadinot turned to the work that established his commercial success: directing and distributing gay porn film and video with a dis­tinc­­tive personal style.

Cadinot Berlioz symphonie fantastique brings together surreal and atmospheric color and black-and-white photos of White, Black and Maghrebin nude-male mo­dels in their twenties. The entire series is inspired by Romantic composer Hector Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantas­tique."

All the images are reproduced as full-page plates. A two-page introduction by the photographer presents the album and the themes of the individual sections. A one-page text signed "un ami" (a friend) charac­terizes the album as "une choréographie" (a choreography).