Quick Facts
Biography
Tom Bianchi (born 1945 in Oak Park, Illinois) is an American writer and photographer who specializes in male nude photography.
Career
His 21 books of photographs, poems, and essays primarily cover the gay male experience.
In 1990, St. Martin's Press published Out of the Studio, Bianchi's book of male nudes, frankly gay and affectionally connected.Thereafter, 20 of Bianchi's books have been published, three documentary films about Bianchi's work have been distributed, and Bianchi's work has been published in more than thirty anthologies on the male nude.His On the Couch series, Deep Sex, Erotic Triggers and Fine Art Sex deal with the expression of conscious sexual energy.His most recent book, made with his partner, Ben Smales, is Fire Island Pines Polaroids 1975–1983. The book was honored by Time magazine's list of the Best Photo Books of 2013.
Personal life and AIDS activism
Bianchi was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. Bianchi studied political science at the University of New Mexico, and subsequently earned a law degree at Northwestern University. He practiced corporate law for ten years in Chicago and Washington, D.C.. At thirty-four, he left his position as senior counsel at Columbia Pictures, tore up his law degree, pasted it into a painting and had his first one-man show with Betty Parsons and Carol Dreyfuss in New York.Shortly thereafter, he had his first major museum retrospective at the Spoleto Festival in 1984. Bianchi currently resides in Palm Springs, California.
Bianchi, who is HIV positive, has been active in several projects devoted to the fight against AIDS. He is the co-founder of a biotechnology company and manages the funding for the development of new AIDS medication.
On February 3, 2019, Bianchi's Instagram account was suddenlysuspended by the social media platform. Bianchi's account was restored within hours after he appealed, but perceived censorship brought widespread outrage from the LGBT community and highlighted a pattern of queer censorship by social media platforms.
Exhibitions
- 2013 – Tom Bianchi Gallery – 'Fire Island Polaroids | Men in Blue Water | Classic Black and Whites – solo show
- 2009 – Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs – Men in Blue Water – solo show – photographs
- 2008 – Philip Hitchcock Gallery, St. Louis – Fire Island Pines – solo show – Polaroid SX-70s Fire Island Pines in the 1970s
- 2008 – Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs – Fire Island Pines – solo show – Polaroid SX-70s taken in the Pines in the 1970s
- 2007 – Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago – Relationships – group show – photographs
- 2006 – Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago – solo show – photographs
- 2006 – Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs – Tom Bianchi, Men in Blue Water – solo show – photographs
- 2006 – Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs – Architecture – group show – photographs
- 2006 – Exposure Gallery, Palm Springs – Classic Nudes – group show – photographs
- 2005 – Jerry Miller Gallery, Palm Springs – solo show – drawings
- 2005 – Jerry Miller Gallery, Palm Springs – On the Couch – solo show – photographs
- 2005 – Dennis O'Connor Gallery, Toronto – On the Couch – solo show – photographs
- 2003 – Photography Institute, Tokyo – Living with Dickens – solo show
- 2002 – Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee – The Male Figure – group show – photographs – curated by William Doan