Frederick L. Smith photographed by Frank Eugene (1915)

Many of Frank Eugene’s photographs are of an ethereal beauty - ghostly figures indistinct in leafy glades of mist and shadows, works of imaginative and otherworldly charm. It is, then, a somewhat startling departure to see such a mundane, down to earth photograph, taken in 1912; a simple indoor scene of an ordinary man, oh-so-casually drawing aside his silk dressing gown to reveal his nudity. The model is, in fact, the photographer’s own brother Frederick L Smith, further grounding this in reality - not a magical moment with a model specially chosen for his exquisite looks, but a simple and romanticized image of great appeal.