Early 2026 – Brendan McCleary – curated an exhibition held at the Gallery at City Library, called LOVING: Photographs of Men in Love 1850s-1950s, presented by The European Union and the City of Melbourne.
The exhibition showcased hundreds of photographs from the archive of Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell, partners and collectors based in New York, from photographs gathered over 25 years from flea markets, antique stores, family albums and online auctions, bringing to public view a rare collection of vintage images depicting male couples between the 1850s and 1950s.
Some photographs that were in the exhibition are discussed, but we were not supplied with photographs to include in this presentation.
From a single photo found in Dallas in the 1990s, that captured what Nini and Treadwell described as the ‘unmistakable look of love’, has grown into an archive of over 4,000 photographs. These images capture everyday moments between men in love: holding hands, embracing, posing cheek to cheek, captured at a time when same-sex relationships were often illegal or unspoken.
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