The queer photographer George Platt Lynes who worked in the 1930s and 1940s was one of the most important pioneers of male nude photographs.  His models featured many gay artists and writers from the 1940s which may the whole body of his work that much more remarkable  

As well as pursuing his passion for men, Lynes built himself a career as a respected and in-demand fashion and commercial photographer. However, in his spare time, Lynes took thousands of photographs of the men he encountered.  They were not just nude, but erotic, explicit, and very arousing. Given the socially conservative environment of that period, he couldn’t publish or exhibit the photos anywhere.  So he amassed a huge collection of these homoerotic photos, which on his death, he donated to the Kinsey Institute. They now hold over 2,000 negatives of Lynes remarkable and unique homoerotic and sexually explicit images

In 2011 Rizzoli  published the definitive book of his work
 "George Platt Lynes: The Male Nudes by Steven Hass".  
Copies are so rare now they will set you back anything from $1500 to $2500. 

P.S. Just published is ‘George Platt Lynes: the Daring Eye,’ by Allen Ellenzweig, Oxford University Press $45 hardcover.  global.oup.com