Fascinating. Have I cherry-picked here? Of course, I have cherry-picked. Hemingway was photogenic, he was one of the most photographed people of his time, there are zillions of photographs of Hemingway. Not all of them show him with his hands folded over his crotch. But these are him too! There are themes here. One theme is the Hitler theme, origin of my theory.

I read one time that the reason Hitler held his hands over his crotch was because he was dysfunctional down there. Obviously traumatized me. I went looking for photographs of moi and was relieved to find that I had never been so photographed (Although my brother was, he-he-he.) It was subconscious on Hitler's part. Now, Hitler was a much-photographed dude, right? Right. I have had occasion to Google Hitler many times since this revelation and there is only one other photo I can remember of him in that pose.

Conversely, when I read about The Garden of Eden I did not Google "Hemingway hands over crotch" as I did just now with Hitler, I just Googled "Ernest Hemingway." There are a shit-load more photographs of Papa with his hands folded over his crotch than of Hitler and no evidence I am aware of that Hemingway was dysfunctional. So maybe that theory I read about Hitler's photos was bullshit. Hitler was dysfunctional but the photos may not be evidence of subconscious acknowledgment of the dysfunction. Whatever the merits of the theory there are too many of these photographs of Hemingway for them not to mean something. I remember thinking "Well, how many reasonable ways are there to hold one's hands when posing for a photograph?" Well, straight down at your side is one! Others? Behind your back? In your pockets? Folded over your chest? The reasonable universe of ways to hold one's hands when posing for a photograph is limited. It's the body of this work that should be evaluated and, in my opinion, both the quantity and quality of this photographic evidence is consistent with this theory: The themes in The Garden of Eden, sexual transference, sexual identity, androgyny, sexual role-playing, maybe costume-play, are played out over the course of Hemingway's personal life and can be glimpsed in these photographs.

Compare this photograph to that of Hitler. Hitler grasps his right hand with his left. That is not a grasp there by Hemingway. It's dainty, isn't it?

That is truly a hilarious photograph. Besides the obvious, look at the contrast in the body language of those guys! Hemingway is back on his right foot. Sort of sheepish. The other guy is squared up to the cameraman (woman?), hands on hips. Hemingway with his right hand again on his left, not grasping his left hand. Maybe he's grasping his penis with his left, I don't know what he's doing. Maybe scratching himself.

The guy at far let has...has a thing coming out of his zipper...but in addition he has his hands behind his back. Papa has his down at his crotch again.

Left over right. Doesn't look quite like a grasp he's holding his right hand. There is a theme here also with poor Dr. Hemingway but not now.

Not quite the same thing. Or not quite as obviously the same thing. The military guy doesn't have either hand at his waist.

There are variations on the theme:

Hemingway holding his weapon. As with the swimmer photograph there could hardly be greater contrast between the body language of these two men. The other guy's body is squared up to the camera. Hemingway is leaned back as in the photograph with Dr. Hemingway and has left leg bent inward as in the photo with Martha Gellhorn. The other guy carries his gun in a cocky way. Hemingway, not so much.

Hemingway holding his smaller weapon.

Hemingway holding...I don't know what Hemingway's holding there. A bottle? A shell? Whatever it is, there are other ways of holding it. Why is he holding it like that? It's a "theme."

The man spent a lot of time with his hands near his crotch, that's all I know. Weight on right foot, left foot slightly bent again.

Lot of ways to hold a firearm. Up at eye level, I usually did. 

See, you can have your hands down to your side when posing for a photograph, human beings are capable of that. Your hands don't have to be playing with your penis all the time. 

Bosie? He looks like one of Oscar Wilde's boys there. Or Proust's. 

more.