Essay: Unpublished Post-war Gay Writing
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Essay: Ordinary Lives and Gay History
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Summer Afternoon
One afternoon, a group of young men put on their colours, take to their bicycles and race for medals. They do well; there are four trophies on the upturned beer crate. We can smell the warm summer grass, and see the men's evident pride in their sport. These eight tiny 'box brownie' photographs turned up in our family archive. They may well have been taken in Nelson but, other than what we see here, I know nothing about the men in the images. Still, these are evocative snapshots of a moment in time.
Overseas, 1961
Keith Hulme returned from wartime service in the Pacific, settled in Auckland, and lived (until his death in 1976) with partner David Wildey. Keith travelled overseas in 1961; so says the label on a box of his slides. Here are a few momentoes of his time in America, France and elsewhere. Several spots are readily identifiable - the Champs-Elysées taken from the Arc de Triomphe, views onto the Eiffel Tower and St Giles' cathedral in Edinburgh - but others, including what appears to be a naval dockyard and a 'crossing the line' ceremony, are less so. Was the latter a re-enactment? The boat seems small to be afloat in the high seas. Either way, sailors are a recurring theme.