Prisoners of War

I am reluctant to post nude photos of war prisoners because they were sometimes mistreated and often not able to consent to having their photos made, something that could probably be said about any number of military nude photos.  I do make exceptions, however, for images where the men appear to be well treated and not in any obvious distress.  All but one of today's images, including a movie, were kindly forwarded to me by fellow Hawaii resident Larry K., a diligent and generous researcher.  We start with some German prisoners at a transit camp in Bourg Leopold, Belgium.  The date was January 20, 1945 and the photographer was Sgt. Silverside of the British Army.

I think I lost some of Larry's notes on this photo from the Imperial War Museum 

because all I have on it is "1917 at Varnita, Romania."  They may not even be prisoners.

Not many know it, but the British sent troops to help the hapless Italians in World War I.

Larry K.'s source says that these men are Austro-Hungarian prisoners of the British being 

allowed to get a bath in a stream.  Some even seem to have soap and wash cloths, 

and one guy in the background may actually be having a quick swim.

Larry K. found this movie clip of Russian prisoners being processed by their Austro-Hungarian captors.  They are getting haircuts for louse control, and their lice infested uniforms are either being burned or disinfected.  Although not shown here, I have stills similar to this that show crotch haircuts.

This is the only post today that wasn't provided by Larry K.  It is from the Australian 

War Memorial and shows a clandestine photo taken in a Singapore prison not long after the British-Australian forces in Malaya surrendered to the Japanese in 1942.  I can't bring myself to post 

the photos of these men when they were liberated three years later.  It was that bad.

Beefy Men Day, Part 2 - Vigeland's Frogner Park Installation

Gustav Vigeland (1869-1943) was a Norwegian sculptor who is best known for his massive body of work in a single installation in Frogner Park, Oslo.  (He also designed the Nobel Prize medal, fwiw.)  Here is his wiki:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Vigeland

Most of these works are men on the beefy side, so they will be the art portion of our double feature.

A number of Vigeland's statues involve burly men with babies, and this is one

 of the more conventional.  There's one with a guy punting a baby like a football.

Although bronze is by far the most common medium in the 

Frogner Park installation, there are some stone works as seen here.

Vigeland's Frogner Park works appear all over the internet,

but there is little or no curation.  I'd love to know what this one is about.

This Vigeland statue reminds me of the day my Uncle Sonny taught his twin sons to swim in my grandfather's irrigation pond.  I was there, and we all survived it somehow.

Beefy Men Day, Part 1 - Physique Models on the Bulkier Side

Beef is on the menu for our Friday double feature.  While most of the physique photographers of the 1940-1965 golden era of the genre got their start with bodybuilders, they didn't often focus on men who seem bulked up.  Today, we will see five who did, starting with Bill Lamm by Bruce of LA.

I couldn't do a beefy series without Keith Stephan.

Melvin Wells, photographed here by Lon of New York, barely qualifies as beefy, but his body is so well developed along natural lines that I had to include him.

Jim French of Colt Studio seems to have been something of a groundbreaker in terms of featuring beefy men in his male nudes.  This is Harley Cantrell, probably not his real name.

Bud Counts is often included in lists of the biggest and beefiest men in physique photography, 

but I found out he was only 5'8".  Well, he's still pretty beefy.  Photo by Dave Martin.

Roy Blakey Nudes

Roy Blakey was a Holiday on Ice performer who had a second career photographing male nudes.Tristan Berry here posed for him on September 17, 1971.

I can't find a name for this Blakey model.

Roy Blakey didn't often photograph more than one man at a time,

but when he did, he did it well.

John Converse posed for this Roy Blakey photo in 1975.

Blakey specialized in photographing dancers,

and I have a strong feeling this is one of them.