Guglielmo Plüschow
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Guglielmo Plüschow (August 18, 1852–January 3, 1930), born Wilhelm Plüschow was a German photographer who moved to Italy and became known for his nude photos of local youths, predominantly males (but also females). Being the cousin of Wilhelm von Gloeden, who, despite taking up nude photography later than Plüschow, soon overshadowed him, Plüschow was several times at odds with the law and charged with corruption of minors. Today, his photography is recognized for its artistic merits, even though it is generally considered somewhat inferior to von Gloeden's on account of his less graceful handling of lighting and the sometimes strangely stilted poses of his models.
Biography
Not much is known about Plüschow's early life, except that he was born in Wismar as the eldest of seven brothers and sisters. His father Friedrich Carl Eduard Plüschow was an illegitimate child of Friedrich Ludwig von Mecklenburg-Schwerin and the family home was Schloss Plüschow.
In the early 1870s, he moved to Rome and changed his first name from "Wilhelm" to its Italian equivalent "Guglielmo". Initially making a living as a wine merchant, he soon turned to male and female nude photography. Later he also worked in Naples, among others doing contract work like taking pictures of Nino Cesarini, the young lover of Baron Jacques d'Adelsward-Fersen at the latter's house Villa Lysis on Capri.
In 1902, Plüschow was charged with "common procuration" and "seduction of minors" and had to spend eight months in jail. Another scandal followed in 1907, and in 1910 Plüschow left Italy for good and returned to Berlin.
Further reading
- Bernhard Albers (ed.), Galdi / Gloeden / Plüschow. Aktaufnahmen aus der Sammlung Uwe Scheid, Rimbaud Presse, Aachen 1993
- Et in Arcadia ego. Fotografien von Wilhelm von Gloeden, Guglielmo Plüschow und Vincenzo Galdi, Edition Oehrli, Zurich 2000
- Volker Janssen (ed.), Wilhelm von Gloeden, Wilhelm von Plüschow, Vincenzo Galdi: Italienische Jünglings-Photographien um 1900, Janssen Verlag, Berlin 1991
- Marina Miraglia, Guglielmo Plüschow alla ricerca del bello ideale, in: "AFT (Archivio Fotografico Toscano)", IV 7, luglio 1988, pp. 62-67
- Ulrich Pohlmann, Wer war Guglielmo Plüschow?, "Fotogeschichte", n. 29, VIII 1988, pp. 33-38.
- Bruce Russel, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Wilhelm von Plüschow. Two photo essays. I Von Plüschow: toward a definition of his canon. In: "Visual communication", IX, spring 1983, n. 2, pp. 57-59 e 65-71.
- Uwe Scheid, Il vero nudo: Aktstudien von Guglielmo Plüschow, "Fotogeschichte" n. 29, VIII 1988, pp. 9-21.
- Peter Weiermeier, Guglielmo Plüschow, Taschen verlag, Köln 1994 ISBN 3822890421
- Winckelmann (pseud.), A rediscovered boy-photographer. Guglielmo Plüschow (1852-1930), "Gayme" n. III 1, 1996, pp. 22-30.
External links
- [Biography and gallery of his works]
- [Gallery on the official website of Schloss Plüschow]
- [Biography with citations (in Italian) and gallery]
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