In the 1950’s censorship was so strict it was nigh on impossible to get your hands on naked men ……well, photos of them at least. That started to change in 1951 when American photographer Bob Mizer found a way around the legal restrictions by making his naked models use athletic and bodybuilding poses like in any Sports Magazines at the time. Thus the iconic Physique Pictorial was born.
Mizer photographed thousands of men, from Hollywood actors to bodybuilders, to hustlers and porn stars. in his own home making it the country’s first all-male all nude magazine. He was also the first one to print the drawings of Touko Laaksonen who would go on to be the legendary gay artist Tom of Finland.
Bob Mizer died in 1992, but in 2004 Dennis Bell purchased the photographers significant archives and he established the Bob Mizer Foundation to protect and promote the work. Now Bell has relaunched the iconic Physique Pictorial magazine, and the three new editions he has already published can be purchased at https://store.bobmizerfoundation.org/collections/physique-pictorial
Labels: 2018, beefcake, Bpb Mizer, culture, eye candy, gay history, nudity, Physique Pictorial
