More than 20 years ago, Hugh Nini and his partner Neal Treadwell were browsing in an antique shop in Dallas, Texas, when they came across a 1920s photo of a young male couple in which they were sure they saw clandestine love. Struck by the risk the pictured couple had taken by showing themselves intertwined physically, in everyday clothing in an American suburb, Nini and Treadwell saw themselves. 

Their collection of images of men in love now encompasses more than 4,000 photographs from about 1850 to 1950, spanning events like the Civil War, two World Wars, and the Great Depression, and coming from all across the world. A selection was published in a book, Loving: A Photographic History of Men in Love, 1850s-1950s, in 2020. Reviewing it in Rolling Stone, Jerry Portwood said it was “gorgeous” and called it “a promise we keep to these forgotten men, acknowledging their devotion, who loved despite all the odds.”

Portwood also hoped the book would become a museum show, and at Geneva’s Rath Museum (the temporary exhibition space of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), he now has his wish with the exhibition, “Loving: the Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell Collection.” Zurich-based artist Walter Pfeiffer helped to curate the show from a selection offered by Nini and Treadwell. The show came as a result of museum director Marc-Olivier Wahler meeting the book’s publishers in 2019.

Photograph, undated, with a note: “Edward and his chum.” Courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell collection © Loving by 5 Continents Editions

The photos and the subjects are anonymous, and the men pose as straight couples might: in bed, on board a ship, in a photo booth, or even simulating a wedding. They include workers, businessmen, students, and servicemen. 

And they’ve mostly stayed anonymous despite the exposure in the book, which was published in various languages around the world simultaneously.

“Surprisingly, we have had no one reach out to say that they are related to anyone in our book,” said the collectors in an interview with the museum. “However, people who have our book have sent us photos of their relatives that they believe could be a part of our next book.”

There is one couple which has been identified, according to the collectors. 

“A professor from Vienna, and others, have reached out to us saying that the couple on pages 210/211 are in fact Rupert Brook, a famous poet, and Duncan Grant, a famous artist, both from the U.K.,” they said. “If you look at photos of these two men from the early 1900s, they are more than similar. They are a match.”

“One enduring philosophical question is: ‘If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?’” the collectors asked in their book. “The correct answer is yes—or no. If these couples loved each other and memorialized their love with a photo, but no one else saw it, did their love exist or matter? This book is filled with fallen trees whose sound, though delayed, is now being heard for the first time.”

See more photos from the show below.

Photograph, 1951, with a note: “1951”, “Davis & J.C.” Courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell collection © Loving by 5 Continents Editions

Photograph, United States, undated. Courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell collection © Loving by 5 Continents Editions.

Photograph (n.d.). Courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell collection. © Loving Continents Editions.

Photograph, United States, undated. Courtesy of the Nini-Treadwell collection © Loving by 5 Continents Editions.

“Loving: the Hugh Nini and Neal Treadwell Collection” is on view at the Rath Museum, Rue Charles-Galland 2, 1206 Geneva, through September 24.