Photographer George Platt Lynes achieved renown during his lifetime for his innovative celebrity portraits and striking fashion photography. However, his best work and greatest passion was for the explicit male nudes he made of his lovers, friends, colleagues, dancers, models — and any other handsome man he could persuade to disrobe in front of his camera. This articulate, wide-ranging, fabulously gossipy documentary brings to life the charming, complex man who wielded his good looks, natural talent, and massive ambition in pursuit of artistic creation and sexual pleasure.

Directed by famed art director Sam Shahid, this doc portrait places the photographer within the larger network of gay artists and cultural figures who championed each other’s work. Showcasing a dazzling amount of Lynes’ photographs (including some rarely seen to this day), Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes mounts a convincing case that Lynes not only deserves rediscovery, but should be remembered as one of the great masters of 20th century photographic art.