Ablutions

For Monday we have some guys starting off their morning ablutions.

I don't know why, but I can't stop looking at that sink arrangement.

All the info that came with this one was "1928."

So here we have one guy shaving in ankle deep water, another swimming off shore, 

and a third about to take on the hopeless task of righting that swamped boat.  Odd scene.

Here's one for my badly neglected coterie of chubby chasers.

You don't know how hard it is to find vintage nude photos of chubs.

I don't know if he's washing his hair in the sink or trying to wake himself up.

Either way, I'm sure some of you will like the picture.

Andrew Kozak Day, Part 2

Andy Kozak was one of those models who looked sexy even when not fully exposed, and today's second series features some of his non-nude work.  It seems odd to me that, at least in my collection, I have more non-nude photos with no artist attribution than nudes.  Usually it's the other way round.

Although similar to another unattributed photo I posted today,

this shot of Andy shows some different aspects.

This Kozak photo by an unknown (at least to me) photographer

 is expertly done in both technical and artistic terms.

Bob Mizer of AMG took this posing strap photo featuring Andy Kozak with 

Vern Charles and Forrester Millard in the background.

This AMG photo of Kozak is watermarked, but I'm posting it anyway.

Andrew Kozak Day, Part 1

Today I am featuring Andrew Kozak, a legendary model among the post World War II West Coast physique photographers.  He was known and documented to have worked for Kovert of Hollywood, Bob Mizer of AMG, Dave Martin, and Denny Denfield.  There are unattributed photos of Andy (including this one) that suggest he may have worked for other photographers as well.  Early in his career, he worked with his body hair removed, but later, thank goodness, he stopped removing it.  Something of an artist and entrepreneur himself, Kozak marketed albums of his photos and sold his own paintings and watercolors which sometimes featured male nudes.

This is the first of two photos posted today of Andy Kozak by Fred Kovert.  They may be Andy's earliest modeling work because Fred tragically committed suicide in 1948, and most of Kozak's images by other artists date from the early 1950's.  He does look very young here.

Denny Denfield took this color photo of Kozak against a cliff as part of what I think was an ocean side photo shoot.  I say "think" because the ocean is not visible in any of the pictures I have from that session, although some beach pebbles and shells are barely showing in one or two.

A well-oiled Andrew Kozak looks like a Classical Greek statue in this

 Kovert of Holllywood picture, something typical of Kovert's work.

AMG is generally given as the source of this amazing photo

 that seems to show off every one of
Andy Kozak's muscles.

Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyńsk, 1898-1943

Fellow Hawaii resident and frequent blog collaborator Larry sent me some amazing photos by Narcyz Witczak-Witaczyńsk, a Polish Cavalry officer who was also a professional photographer.  He chronicled the famed cavalry between the two world wars and joined the Polish Resistance during World War II.  He was turned in by an informer and died in Majdanek concentration camp in 1943.  Today I will feature some of his photos, starting with this 1937 self portrait.

Witczak-Witaczyńsk called this photo "Beach."

Disclosure:  I cropped this to show detail, such as it is.

Recreational swimming seems to have been something Witczak-Witaczyńsk liked to photograph as Larry's contribution included several good shots of it.  

Disclosure:  I cropped this to show detail.

This impressive older man must have been an officer or senior NCO.

My offering for the Bum Brigade shows soldiers who seem to have dismounted and disrobed, probably just before washing the horses.  They have neatly arranged their saddles, boots and clothes.

These Polish cavalrymen are frolicking in a river near Lasomin without their horses.
Thanks again to Larry here in Hawaii for sharing these amazing photos.