If you can say "CONDOM" in English...

Penis Cop (2002) by Art Chantry

I came across this seemingly vintage advertisement for condoms and couldn't stop laughing. I pictured it being distributed to military men, posted in locker rooms, or perhaps in the back of men's magazines. As it turns out, the image appeared in no such places: it's a creation of a modern-day graphic designer named Art Chantry. The artist made it for a 2002 public service campaign about AIDS prevention.

I can't help but to think the number of times therapists and other people use an epistemology of personal revelation. Things are true--are knowledge--because we think they are based on what we feel or think. It provides for a situation where we can be grossly wrong about our understandings of the world around us.

It's not that I'm opposed to an epistemology of personal revelation. It is a powerful way of knowing. By itself, however, it's incomplete. Personal revelation needs to be combined with disciplined observation and hypothesis testing (the scientific method). Both together are more powerful than either alone.

Chantry's poster is a perfect example of the problems with an epistemology of personal revelation. It is easy to see the condom ad as vintage based on color and design. A closer examination of it quickly changes the story. The text transforms the visual impression of a vintage poster into an impression of a more modern day public health message.

The art of David Trullo provides another example of how our revelations are easily manipulated. By manipulating vintage photos with modern technology he turns real scenes into unreal ones--unreal scenes that still look real. He provides another powerful example of how personal revelation by itself can create misunderstandings.

As you might imagine, I have added a new obsession to my collection of all things vintage. Here are a few (real) vintage advertisements for condoms. Watch my Tumblr page for more -- along with a variety of other things that challenge us to see things through the lenses of personal revelation as well as empirical validation.

Photos are Not Always What They Seem

David Trullo/A True History-Alterhistory

While sorting through images depicting men in relationships, I almost passed by this one without a second thought. The picture does not add anything to my collection: there are hundreds of pictures of young men wearing military uniforms that are holding hands. There are scores of images of men from the World War I era.

I expanded the picture to look a little closer at the details. Enlarged, the picture takes on a surreal quality. The lighting and tones are a little off and lends an artificial quality to the image. Something doesn't seem quite right.

This is, of course, because there is something that is not right about the image. There is something unreal about it.

The components of the image are real. Each of the two young boys in uniform existed at some point in history. The background is a real place that once existed.

An artist, named David Trullo, collected pictures similar to the ones I have, manipulated and altered them, and created an alternative history that did not actually happen. While the boys and background were at one time real, they were never real together at the same time.

In his artist's statement, Trullo writes

Vintage Sailors: An Awkward Realization

Photo Credit: Ian Swart

This picture tells an interesting tale. On multiple sites across the net this image is curated on blogs suggesting it depicts two couples on a double date.

It doesn't actually depict any sort of actual dating. 

Lewis Swart is pictured in the front left along with three of his Navy buddies. The image was taken at the Aquarium Restaurant in New York City sometime during the World War II era. 

If you'd like to learn more about "Grandpa Swart" visit his grandson's Flicker page. The images are a wonderful collection of visual history of one family's experiences in World War II.

This photo provides a great example of how an image can take a life of its own. It is easy to see what we'd like: it takes a little bit of research to see what that actual story is.
For more images of vintage men and their relationships (some gay, some straight) visit: Two Men and Their Dog; Adam and Steve in the Garden of Eden: On Intimacy Between Men; A Man and His Dog; The Beasts of West Point; Vintage Men: Innocence Lost | The Photography of William Gedney; It's Only a Paper Moon;Vintage Gay America: Crawford Barton; These Men Are Not Gay | This Is Not A Farmer | Disfarmer; Desire and Difference: Hidden in Plain Sight, Come Make Eyes With Me Under the Anheuser Bush, Hugh Mangum: Itinerant Photographer, Two men, Two Poses; Photos are Not Always What They Seem,Vintage Sailors: An Awkward Realization, Three Men on a Horse, Welkom Bar: Vintage Same Sex Marriage, Pretty in Pink: Two Vintage Chinese Men, Memorial Day Surprise: Vintage Sailor Love, Memorial Day: Vintage Dancing Sailors, The Curious Case of Two Men Embracing, They'll Never Know How Close We Were, Vintage Love: Roger Miller Pegram,Manly Affections: Robert Gant, Homo Bride and Groom Restored to Dignity, The Men in the Trees, The Girl in the Outhouse, Tommy and Buzz: All My Love,Men in Photo Booths, and Invisible: Philadelphia Gay Wedding c. 1957. You can also follow me on Tumblr.

Three Men on a Horse

What are these three men doing hanging out on a fake horse?

Visiting San Francisco, obviously.

Why these three men got up on this horse is lost to history. The where is a little bit easier to find.

The Cliff House (look up  in the right corner) was a popular tourist destination. The original burnt in 1907.

For the curious reader, you can read all you ever wanted to know about Sutro's Cliff House here, here, here, here, here, and here.

For curious reader's who would rather watch a video you might be interested in this one by Thomas Edison that depicts the Sutro Baths.

As for the three men. They were probably friends--or brothers--stopping off in town. Perhaps they were heading off to war? Their image, as many other's that depict vintage men in relationships, often are seen to represent gay relationships. They aren't. These images are largely a reminder of earlier times when men had more freedom to express intimacy as part of a friendship.

For more images of vintage men and their relationships (some gay, some straight) visit: Two Men and Their Dog; Adam and Steve in the Garden of Eden: On Intimacy Between Men; A Man and His Dog; The Beasts of West Point; Vintage Men: Innocence Lost | The Photography of William Gedney; It's Only a Paper Moon;Vintage Gay America: Crawford Barton; These Men Are Not Gay | This Is Not A Farmer | Disfarmer; Desire and Difference: Hidden in Plain Sight, Come Make Eyes With Me Under the Anheuser Bush, Hugh Mangum: Itinerant Photographer, Two men, Two Poses; Photos are Not Always What They Seem,Vintage Sailors: An Awkward Realization, Three Men on a Horse, Welkom Bar: Vintage Same Sex Marriage, Pretty in Pink: Two Vintage Chinese Men, Memorial Day Surprise: Vintage Sailor Love, Memorial Day: Vintage Dancing Sailors, The Curious Case of Two Men Embracing, They'll Never Know How Close We Were, Vintage Love: Roger Miller Pegram,Manly Affections: Robert Gant, Homo Bride and Groom Restored to Dignity, The Men in the Trees, The Girl in the Outhouse, Tommy and Buzz: All My Love,Men in Photo Booths, and Invisible: Philadelphia Gay Wedding c. 1957. You can also follow me on Tumblr.

Stonewall -- 44 years ago today

Sandow Birk

This past week has been a transformative one for our country. With the Supreme Court decisions about the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8 in California, we've made a significant step toward viewing all gay and lesbian people as equals.

We have a long way to go.

We've come a long way already.

In our culture that dwells in the now and the future, we tend to forget about the past and where we've been. Forty-four years ago, in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, a number of spontaneous and violent demonstrations erupted between the nascent queer community and the New York City Police Department.

HIV has decimated our community of elders. There are few here now that hold memories of what came before. We shouldn't forget the sacrifices these brave men and women made for us all.

Empirically Supported Protocol Based Psychotherapy

Necessary, but not sufficient.

Mondays with Alan: The Cosmos