Dianora Niccolini Nude Photography

Italian born Dianora Niccollini has created a vintage silver gelatin photograph of a very muscular nude male with dreadlocks down his back. This vintage photograph is signed, dated and numbered 4/25 on the verso. It has a full page illustration in the publication "Male Nude Now, New Visions for the 21st Century" by David Leddick. Niccolini was a pioneer as a woman photographer who used the nude male figure as her subject matter. She depicted the nude black male as art long before Robert Mapplethorpe. Dianora Niccolini was born in Florence, Italy, to an American mother and a father from an old Florentine family. She lived in Florence throughout the second world war, and at the age of almost nine years old, she came to the United States. When she turned 18, she left home and went to New York City to study art. She met a group of dancers and her passion, in her late teens and early twenties, was ballet. After she met Weegee in 1963, she took up photography and since then her professional career and focus have been photography. In 1973, she began to create photographic bodies of work which resulted in exhibits, the first of which was in 1974. It was a serious study of the female nude. Her second exhibit in 1975 was a study of the male nude which was favorably reviewed by Gene Thornton in "The Sunday New York Times" of December 7, 1975. One of her first male models was an African-American body builder. Photographs of him have been included in many photographic anthologies and were also widely exhibited in the mid seventies and pre-dated Mapplethorpe's images of body builders by several years. Niccolini's male nude images have definitely influenced many photographers. She is considered to be one of the female pioneers of the male nude in photography...

This vintage silver gelatin photograph is signed, dated and numbered 6 of 25 impressions on the verso. This image appears on the cover of the book, "Naked Men Too, Liberating the Male Nude" by David Leddick. The model is Anthony, a man who long competed in all natural physique competitions. The sculptural aspects of his body made him the clinical ideal man for Niccolini's photographs. His white briefs are matched by the shirt he is in the process of stripping off. Niccolini was a pioneer as a woman photographer who used the nude male figure as her subject matter. She depicted the nude black male as art long before Robert Mapplethorpe. Dianora Niccolini was born in Florence, Italy, to an American mother and a father from an old Florentine family. She lived in Florence throughout the second world war, and at the age of almost nine years old, she came to the United States. When she turned 18, she left home and went to New York City to study art. She met a group of dancers and her passion, in her late teens and early twenties, was ballet. After she met Weegee in 1963, she took up photography and since then her professional career and focus have been photography. In 1973, she began to create photographic bodies of work which resulted in exhibits. Her first photographic exhibit was in 1974. It was a serious study of the female nude. Her second exhibit was in 1975. It was a study of the male nude which was favorably reviewed by Gene Thornton in The Sunday New York Times of December 7, 1975. One of her first male models was an African-American body builder. Photographs of him have been included in many photographic anthologies and were also widely exhibited in the mid seventies and pre-dated Mapplethorpe's images of body builders by several years. Niccolini's male nude images have definitely influenced many photographers. She is considered to be one of the female pioneers of the male nude in photography...

In this vintage silver gelatin photograph, Dianora Niccolini creates a sensual portrait of a young nude man rising out of the surf with outstretched arms. The photo suggests a spirit of renewal, an awakening. Niccolini used a poem by Walt Whitman as part of her inspiration: I sing the body electric, The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them, They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them, And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul. Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves? And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead? And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul? And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul? Niccolini was a pioneer as a woman photographer who used the nude male figure as her subject matter. She depicted the nude black male as art long before Robert Mapplethorpe. Dianora Niccolini was born in Florence, Italy, to an American mother and a father from an old Florentine family. She lived in Florence throughout the second world war, and at the age of almost nine years old, she came to the United States. When she turned 18, she left home and went to New York City to study art. She met a group of dancers and her passion, in her late teens and early twenties, was ballet. After she met Weegee in 1963, she took up photography and since then her professional career and focus have been photography. In 1973, she began to create photographic bodies of work which resulted in exhibits. Her first photographic exhibit was in 1974. It was a serious study of the female nude. Her second exhibit was in 1975. It was a study of the male nude which was favorably reviewed by Gene Thornton in The Sunday New York Times of December 7, 1975. One of her first male models was an African-American body builder. Photographs of him have been included in many photographic anthologies and were also widely exhibited in the mid seventies and pre-dated Mapplethorpe's images of body builders by several years. Niccolini's male nude images have definitely influenced many photographers. She is considered to be one of the female pioneers of the male nude in photography...

A standing nude male looks downward as a shock of hair hangs forward. This sensual image is full frontal and the left leg is slightly raised. This vinta...

A nude male lies on his back in the shallow surf in this vintage silver gelatin print by Dianora Niccolini. It was created in 1996 and is pencil signed on the back by the artist. Niccolini was a pioneer as a woman photographer who used the nude male figure as her subject matter. She depicted the nude black male as art long before Robert Mapplethorpe. Dianora Niccolini was born in Florence, Italy, to an American mother and a father from an old Florentine family. She lived in Florence throughout the second world war, and at the age of almost nine years old, she came to the United States. When she turned 18, she left home and went to New York City to study art. She met a group of dancers and her passion, in her late teens and early twenties, was ballet. After she met Weegee in 1963, she took up photography and since then her professional career and focus have been photography. In 1973, she began to create photographic bodies of work which resulted in exhibits. Her first photographic exhibit was in 1974. It was a serious study of the female nude. Her second exhibit was in 1975. It was a study of the male nude which was favorably reviewed by Gene Thornton in The Sunday New York Times of December 7, 1975. One of her first male models was an African-American body builder. His photographs have been included in many photographic anthologies and were also widely exhibited in the mid seventies and pre dated Mapplethorpe's images of body builders by several years. Dianora Niccolini's male nude images have definitely influenced many photographers. She is considered to be one of the female pioneers of the male nude in...