"Dianora Niccolini - Most of the photographers here identify (or can historically be identified) as queer or gay men. Dianora Niccolini, on the other hand, offers a fascinating view of men as softly erotic in a way that (sometimes literally) places them as complementary to women. Her images linger on muscles and tend, like some of Mapplethorpe's, toward a more ""ideal"" vision of brawny muscularity while at the same time making those burly bodies vulnerable. Stockton Bending (1996) exemplifies this—and my love for the reduced backgrounds continues, along with high contrast (though note that this image tends more towards obscuring with its lighting)."