The Vintage Male Physique

Bruce Bellas (1909 - 1974) aka Bruce of Los Angeles I have a few lovely pictures from Bruce - the two types I've noticed are the fancy script stamp, "Bruce" and the plain Bruce of Los Angeles stamp on earlier ones.  Here are two I own that are lovely when examined closer.  The models names, I have yet to discover unless I failed to note it from the back.   Popular 30's, 40's and 50's poses toyed with the notion of Greek/Roman perfection and played on that trope.  Physique models took cues from bodybuilder poses and heterosexual men were easily duped into shedding clothing to show off their hard work.      This photo of a faux fencing pose is an early example of a fully nude model without the genitals on display.  Notice in each of these poses, arms and legs are not hidden and the pose is deliberately instructed and captured.   See my video flipping through the American Photography of the Male Nude - the first volume featuring some amazing mod...

 Welcome!   Let's kick this off with an image I had never seen before that I recently acquired.  It's attributed to Irv Johnson and is of Glenn Bishop - an early image to be certain!  Glenn was into bodybuilding in high school, was a life guard and was into a few sports, including gymnastics and swimming.  The date that this was taken is up for debate but most likely from the early 50's.   I've collected a few things dealing with Glenn, including a rare poster-sized photo from the Michigan state park series as well as five other 11x17 photos from that shoot from Clifford Oettinger.   This makes me think what started me into collecting physique material.  I collected nude male photography books for a bit and am a Robert Mapplethorpe fan (Just Kids by Patti Smith is an amazing book).   I bought a few Physique Pictorials on eBay and that started my interest in Bob Mizer.  I'll talk more about that later.  Enjoy this rare and hairless...