{"id":387773,"date":"2026-01-02T23:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387773\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T23:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T23:08:12","slug":"photographs-of-men-in-love-exhibition-reveals-public-glimpses-of-forbidden-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/387773\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographs of Men in Love exhibition reveals public glimpses of forbidden love"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a black and white photograph, two young men hold up a sign that reads ‘not married but willing to be’.<\/p>\n

It’s a striking image, made more remarkable because it was taken about 125 years ago and a century before same-sex marriage was legalised anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

The identities of the men in the photo are a mystery, but a series of four other photos capture more tender moments between the pair.<\/p>\n

They are some of more than 4,000 vintage snapshots of male romance collected by Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Two men kissing in front of a car. (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

The project began by happenstance 25 years ago, when the American couple first unearthed a photo of men in love at an antique store in Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n

“We just couldn’t believe that it had ever been taken, and that it had survived what, at that point, was 70 years,” Mr Nini said.<\/p>\n

One unmistakable look throughout time\u00a0<\/p>\n

That initial discovery has taken them on a journey around the world, sourcing images from flea markets, shoe boxes, family archives and auctions.<\/p>\n

The images date between the 1850s and the 1950s, when relationships between men were often illegal and almost always hidden from public view.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Two men lying on a bed reading. (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

“There were trans couples back then, there were trans people back then, there were gay people back then, female couples \u2014 just as there is today,” Mr Nini said.<\/p>\n

“These people made it through perhaps difficult times and survived and were so excited about their relationships with each other that they memorialised them with a photograph that they had to keep hidden for its very survival until it somehow it ended up in our laps.”<\/p>\n

The photographs depict soldiers, sailors, wealthy couples and working-class men.<\/p>\n

Some were taken in photo booths, others posed in studios, some couples reclined at the beach, and several were snapped kissing.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Two men sit hugging on a bench seat. The photo has the date 1951. (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

Almost all the men in the images are anonymous, with a few handwritten inscriptions giving scant clues about their identities.<\/p>\n

But all, Mr Treadwell said, had one thing in common.<\/p>\n

“We call it the unmistakable look of love,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You see that sparkle in their eye, you can feel it when you look at the photographs.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

One of thousands of photos in the Nini Treadwell Collection. (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

New exhibition<\/p>\n

A selection of the collection, titled LOVING: Photographs of Men in Love 1850s-1950s, is on display for the first time in Australia at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG).<\/p>\n

The photographs were brought to the capital after the Australian Ambassador to the European Union saw the exhibition in Geneva.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

CMAG curator Nicole Sutherland said these historic stories of love should be shared. (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

CMAG curator Nicole Sutherland said the images resonated strongly with a contemporary audience.<\/p>\n

“There’s this resilience of the couples \u2014 they’re being photographed at a time when it’s perhaps not acceptable, but also there’s just so much joy to be seen in these photos,” Ms Sutherland said.<\/p>\n

“That love should be shared; it should be celebrated.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Two men kissing in front of onlookers. (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

“For some of them, there was a degree of openness amongst their community or their social group about their relationship [and] we can see that some of the images [with] couples kissing in front of other people.”<\/p>\n

When displayed together, some patterns in the photographs emerge.<\/p>\n

Many of the men are snapped holding umbrellas, which is theorised to be a hidden symbol of queerness.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Umbrellas are theorised to be a hidden symbol of queerness.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (Supplied: The Nini Treadwell Collection)<\/p>\n

Finding a family\u00a0<\/p>\n

For Mr Nini and Mr Treadwell, collecting the photos has become a lifelong undertaking.<\/p>\n

They have published two books and say the response from the public has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\"printed<\/p>\n

A selection of the photographs are on display at Canberra Museum and Gallery.\u00a0 (ABC News: Lily Nothling)<\/p>\n

“Realising maybe for the first time that you have a history, it’s not your personal family history, but it’s our community history,” Mr Nini said.<\/p>\n

“People have either been heartened and found a renewed faith in that kind of love, or it’s just reinforced their existing faith in that kind of love.<\/p>\n

“We don’t take any responsibility for that \u2014 this is all the couples who took the photographs, who hid them and kept them alive until we found them.<\/p>\n

“It’s their message to the world; we just put it between the covers of a book.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a black and white photograph, two young men hold up a sign that reads ‘not married but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2666,64,63,2667,130983,15940,76066,207948,46786,207950,207951,207949,44,33757],"class_list":{"0":"post-387773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-canberra","12":"tag-canberra-museum-and-gallery","13":"tag-exhibition","14":"tag-gay","15":"tag-hugh-nini","16":"tag-lgbtqia","17":"tag-loving","18":"tag-men-in-love","19":"tag-neal-treadwell","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-photographs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}