RIP: Jean-Daniel Cadinot (1944-2008)

Jean-Daniel Cadinot, one of gay adult’s legendary director-photographers, has died. GayPornTimes confirmed the news, through an intermediary, with his production company. Mr. Cadinot, 64, passed Wednesday, April 23 from a heart attack. His career in erotica began in 1972 when he first began to shoot nude photographs and over the next six years produced some 17 photo albums that sold several hundred thousand copies. He formed French Art in 1978 with the release of TENDRES ADOLESCENTS. He viewed filmmaking as gay activism: “”The still photo became too limiting. I quickly reached its boundaries and I had a desire for action and movement,” he once said. “I wanted to go further, to tell our collective stories as gay men. Video enabled me to do just that. I have to say that when I’m shooting photos I prefer to work as an artist and make artistic photos because otherwise it’s not long before it gets pornographic and I don’t like that. In that sense there was a progressive evolution towards films in order for me to tell stories about men. In a way it was my first gay activism to illustrate our sexual stories.” Jean-Daniel Cadinot’s films were celebrated for their sensual imagery and plot-driven narratives. He would write, produce and direct some 60 films over three decades; he won Best Director from the GAYVN Awards in 1991 for THE TRAVELING JOURNEYMAN, and Best Director honors (in 1997 and 2001) from the Venus Awards in Berlin. In 2001 he was inducted into the GAYVN Hall of Fame. Our condolences to his family, colleagues and fans. Click here to read the final entry on his official blog…

Here is the final entry on Jean-Daniel Cadinot’s blog:

“If you’re reading these words I will have put down my camera, switched off the lights, drawn the curtains and taken my final bow. May all the efforts and work of a whole life, the quest for the moment of pure truth in the sublime communion of two beings under the spell of the undefinable desire for the other, inspire those who inherit my heart.

“The human being is made such that it only remembers the good and the beautiful, therefore I leave you with a free mind and a head overflowing with a myriad of young men, sometimes strong and vigorous, sometimes fragile and sensitive. All of them gave me these unforgettable moments of their most tender intimacy, moments that only a few really know but which I made in to images to allow you to admire them over and over again.

“Never were success or personal fortune my creed. You offered me gratitude, and I thank you for that because I wanted nothing else. Cadinot salutes you. Remember a kindly fellow, an extreme observer given to rages and contradiction but who listened to others and was full of love.

“An erect phallus is a symbol of life, a cross a symbol of death.”

If you want to see some really good Euro porn, you definitely have to check out his films. He will be sorely missed in the gay porn world.