Mr. Ratty

Tony, 31

“I’m wearing H&M pants, a thrifted denim jacket, and Macy’s button-up and tie are —clearance, bc they aren’t cheap. The glasses I found at St. Marks at a random vendor. My style is inspired by NYC street fashion and guided by my desire to try new silhouettes and shapes, all brought together by a LOVE OF PATTERNS.”

Basil Clavering (1910-1973)

An archive of homoerotic photographs, 1950s-1960s

Clavering was a successful businessman, and owned the Gala-Royale cinema chain. More as a hobby than anything else, he established a photographic studio in the basement of his Pimlico home, with his friend John Charles Parkhurst (1927-2000). Both men had served in the Navy, and they were drawn to the military men around the Hyde Park and Chelsea barracks, whom they paid to model for them. The studio operated under two names, Royale and Hussar, and Clavering sold the photographs by mail order. The images are profoundly erotic, despite there being no frontal nudity. Models are occasionally depicted solo, but more often in groups, and scenarios involve uniform, military and naval discipline, wrestling, light bondage and spanking - somehow always in a mood of levity and playfulness. Clavering met Tom of Finland, and several images from a biker series echo the Finn’s work; in 1957 Studio Hussar even commissioned a series of drawings from him.