L'Etalon homme

A homoerotic photo-novel published at a point when the gains of the first wave of gay organizing in France were being consolidated, an urban commercial gay culture was emerging, and the AIDS crisis had not yet taken hold.

The era saw a marked development of explicit gay fiction, yet the genre remained semi-clandestine. This was particularly the case for books with erotic illustrations, distribution of which was restricted to seedy sex shops.

The 64 pages of color plates in L'Etalon homme show White men in their early to mid-20s; the images were shot in what appear to be a ratty basement and a seedy hotel room with aggressive chintz wallpaper. The uncredited photos are by Jean-Daniel Cadinot (1944–2008), who was just at the point of launching his career as the leading French auteur of gay porn films and videos.

One WorldCat holding: Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.). No holdings in the Catalogue Collectif de France.