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James Bidgood.

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James Bidgood's photographs feature elaborate sets built ground up from the materials of the theatre, fashion, design, and fine art. Many contemporary themes are found even in the earliest of Bidgood's work. Camp, identity, erotics and desire, marginality, and performance can be found in his portraits of nude men. 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 2005, James Bidgood was honored with a Creative Capital grant which facilitated a return to art photography after a hiatus of nearly forty years. In 1999 Taschen published a monograph of his work including biographical images and stills from his film. His most recent work was featured in Out in February 2009.

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James Bidgood, born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1933, lives and works in New York; photographer and director, he has worked as window dresser, fashion designer and drag queen in clubs performances, is most widely known for the highly recognizable photographs, distinguished by an aesthetic of incredible fantasy and camp. His totally new work (which was inspired by the Folies Bergère's shows and George Quaintance's art) has been an important inspiration for artists as Pierre and Gilles and David LaChapelle. In the late 1950s Bidgood attended Parsons The New School for Design in N.Y.; he revolutionized gay male erotic imagery applying the aesthetic of the 40s and 50s to male eroticfantasies

in 1971 he directed famous "Pink Narcissus", the film took seven years to make, and has been entirely filmed in his tiny apartment. He later removed his name from the film because editors had changed his original vision.His works were first published in underground magazines and are still scarcely known to the wider public.