Cal Culver, 1974.

Gelatin silver print, mounted on board.

Titled, signed, and dated in graphite along the lower margin, "Calvin Culver; D. Forbes 74."

A portrait of the famous American adult film star, John Calvin Culver (a.k.a. Casey Donovan). This particular photograph was taken by Bisonnes for Issue #156 of The Advocate (1975).

Image: 10 x 8 in. (25.5 x 20.2)

Board: 14 1/8 x 11 in. (36 x 28cm)

Literature (Illustrated):

Bisonnes, Fred. Bare Essentials: Memoir of Homoeroticist Fred Bisonnes: Book 2: The Gallery. Dancing Faun Publishing, 2021. Illustrated.

Forbes, Dennis. Leaving a Mark on Gay Liberation of the 1970s & '80s. Dancing Faun Publishing, 2020. Illustrated.

The Advocate, Issue 156, January 28, 1975. Los Angeles: Liberation Publications, 1975. Illustrated.

Notes:

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Dennis Forbes relocated to San Francisco in 1972, where he worked as a freelance ghost writer, graphic designer, and photographer, in 1974 becoming art director for Vector (monthly newsstand publication of the Society for Individual Rights); and 1975-1976 as art director of The Advocate, guiding its evolution from a Los Angeles bar newspaper to a biweekly tabloid-format national gay-news magazine. In that capacity he contributed numerous photos and illustrations, including montages and pencil and ink renderings, especially caricatures of gay personalities both historical and contemporary.

Following a stint as the production-stills photographer for Falcon Studios (and designer of its print advertising and brochures), Forbes launched a series of unique magazine-format picture publications featuring combinations of his male-nude photography, homoerotic illustrations, and short erotic fiction. With the colophons Western Man and Lobo, these were printed and distributed by Le Salon, also based in San Francisco.

In 1984, Liberation Publications Inc. (LPI, parent company of The Advocate) commissioned Forbes to singlehandedly create the monthly gay newsstand/subscription magazine Advocate Men. Using the anagram Fred Bisonnes, he served as its staff photographer until 1989; and during those five years he photographed scores of male models, as well as produced numerous illustrations in different styles and mediums, including caricatures of gay pornstars to accompany video reviews.

He lives today on a wooded mountainside nearby Asheville, NC, and continues writing gay-themed fiction as Fred Bisonnes and creating montage and assemblage art.

Nothing adverse to note.

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