Exploring Constructs of Masculinity in the LGBTQ+ Community
Photographer Blake Little, a name long revered in both commercial and fine art photography, invites us to rediscover a hidden cornerstone of his creative legacy with Construction Nudes 1981-85 — his eighth monograph and a captivating exhibition currently showing at Jaco Moretti Gallery in Palm Springs. Though best known for capturing the faces of global celebrities, Little’s personal archive reveals an evocative, deeply human side to his artistry, rooted in visual storytelling and the exploration of queer identity.
In this foundational series, recently uncovered from his early years after moving to Los Angeles in 1980, Little immerses viewers in a dreamlike black-and-white world of classical male nudes set against the raw backdrops of under-construction sites around L.A. As the city braced itself for the 1984 Olympics with an architectural boom, Little found inspiration among exposed rebar, unfinished stairwells, and the chaotic beauty of sites still in flux. Blake Little’s models—often friends and chosen family from the local gay community—stand statuesque, sometimes playful, sometimes reverent, always fully present. The images straddle a compelling boundary between the tactile and the eternal, offering moments of vulnerability, strength, and unmistakable beauty.
More than eroticism, the photographs evoke Greco-Roman ideals, Renaissance classicism, and the quietly defiant energy of queer liberation. In the midst of an unfolding AIDS crisis and a broader culture still struggling with representation, Construction Nudes offers an alternative vision—one of strength and softness, grit and grace. The prints themselves are lush and rich, thanks to the archival quality of 4×5 black-and-white film and the meticulous planning behind each shoot. Little recalls scouting on Saturdays, shooting on Sundays when construction sites were empty, and investing serious resources and energy into capturing each frame.
Each image balances bodies within architectural space—pipes coiling like halos, scaffolding framing bodies mid-movement, tarps acting as makeshift curtains in open-air theatres of performance. There’s an undercurrent of dance, of rhythm and symmetry, that pulses through the portfolio. As Little says, “When I work I’m immersed in the influences of a lot of fields… I love modern dance.” It’s evident in the poise and motion captured in otherwise static moments.
The significance of the work also lies in its duality: it documents a specific moment in queer history and the urban evolution of Los Angeles, while simultaneously serving as a timeless meditation on the male form, art, and space. As Ryan Linkof, Ph.D., Curator at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art writes in the book, “Little’s classicizing nudes connect the contemporary moment to a deeper history of representing and appreciating the male form.”
Ultimately, Construction Nudes is a reclamation of space and identity. It’s about how art can thrive in forgotten places, how queerness has always been quietly revolutionary, and how the body, in its most honest form, can become both monument and memory. For Blake Little, this project is more than nostalgia—it’s a declaration: of vision, of voice, and of belonging.
Construction Nudes is available for purchase here
