Walter Kundzicz Day, Part 2 - the almost Nudes

Rock Granger demonstrates one of Walter Kundzicz's inventive ways to get around the late 1950's and early 1960's censors.  Champion used everything from really tight pants to modified jockstraps to sheer underwear to get his point across without going to jail.  So I'm featuring some of these for our just barely G-rated series today.  The see-through posing strap above is one of my favorites . . . and I don't really like posing straps.

Keri Long posed in a bathing suit smaller than the one he usually wore in this Champion photo.

Ken French posed in what appear to be sheer nylon briefs that just barely cover the goods.

Scott Manley was one of Champion's most prolific models.  Here we see him with a posing strap and chain, one of Walter Kundzicz's interesting modesty setups.

Rocco Carpi posed as a partially dressed sailor for this Champion photo that only begins to hint at the range of props and costumes that Kundzicz used.  I will feature those in a future series.

Walter Kundzicz Day, Part 1 - the Nudes

Walter Kundzicz was born in the New Jersey suburbs of New York in 1925.  He began photographing his friends in the nude as a teenager.  After World War II, he met and learned from physique photographers Lon of New York and Al Urban.  Kundzicz started his own Champion Studio in the late 1950′s.  Like others who published male nudes at the time, Walter faced legal problems.  His first encounter with the law in the 50′s resulted in a fine and mandatory treatment by a psychiatrist.  Another in the early 60′s resulted in a possibly sympathetic judge requiring the police to prove that the models actually had real erections.  When they couldn’t, Kundzicz walked away free.  

Never forget those who struggled for our freedom.

Although not nearly as busy as Bob Mizer's infamous AMG shower, 

Walt Kundzicz did make good use of his.  I have about three dozen photos made there, 

and this one of Joe Canoli is one of my favorites.  Those stickers are pure 60's kitsch.

Bill Rex was photographed for this set at Sunshine Beach, a nudist colony in Florida that Walter Kundzicz bought an interest in.  It was a good investment, fun, and a great source of models.

Walter Kundzicz was one of the first physique photographers to produce predominantly 

color photos, and the great majority of Champion's published pictures are color.  

Darren Chance posed by a mirror for this relatively unusual black and white Champion photo.

This is Dick Stark, a student Kundzicz met when he lived for a time near Columbia University in New York City.  Dick is best known for posing with some of his college buddies in jockstraps for a very memorable photo series believed to have been made in the C.U. gym locker room.  Those photos were far and away the most popular jock photos ever on my old tumblr.  I may need to repeat.

This Champion photo of Doug Jackson only begins to hint at the crazy array of props and costumes Walter Kundzicz used in his work.  I will do a future series featuring those.

Gone Fishing

My handsome neighbor is a commercial fisherman who generously shares his catch with me on a regular basis, including today.  So he inspired today's fishing theme.  

We start with a guy who's using an interesting method.

This fisherman seems to be good-natured about what was probably a surprise photo shoot.

This one might make you chubby chasers happy.

I can't tell if this guy has caught a fish or just got his line snagged.

The model makes me think of Colt, but I have no info on this, and I'm not even sure it meets my pre-1975 vintage standard.  I am, however, absolutely sure I like it.

Durieu and Delacroix in the 1850's, Part 2 - Delacroix's Art

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (1798-1863) was a French Romantic painter whose work was so good that he has his own museum in Paris.  He influenced the Impressionists and left a legacy of diverse paintings that have stood the test of time.  In the mid-1850's his friend and amateur photographer Eugene Durieu produced some of the earliest male and female nude photos as 

studies for him.  I was only able to find about eight of his male nude drawings and paintings, 

and several of those are academic pieces from his student days.  Our Friday night art lesson 

features five of Delacroix's nudes, but we begin with this outstanding self portrait.

Here we see two of the four sketches by Delacroix that are known

 to have resulted from his collaboration with Durieu.

At first glance, I though Delacroix might have used one of Durieu's photos as a study for this painting.  Having now gone through Durieu's entire album, I can't find a pose that matches.

I found this image of a Delacroix drawing of two wrestlers on an auction website, 

and the original sold for a considerable sum of money.

A Polish model is said to have posed for this Delacroix drawing.

This rather pedestrian (for Delacroix) piece is felt to have been done early in his student days.

Durieu and Delacroix in the 1850's, Part 1 - Durieu's Photos

Jean Louis Marie Eugene Durieu (1800-1874) was a French bureaucrat who took up photography as a hobby around 1850.  He was a friend of the renowned Romantic artist Eugene Delacroix, and between 1853 and 1855 he produced an extensive series of male and female nude photos for Delacroix to use as studies for paintings.  (Unfortunately for the fans of this blog, the majority were of women.)  Our Friday photos will be by Durieu, and our art series later tonight will by by Delacroix.  We start with this photo from 1853, one of the three oldest in my collection.

Durieu's photography seems crude by modern standards, but remember, he was an amateur and worked in the mid-1850's, the infancy of photography.  And did he ever know how to pick a model!

The leopard skin adds an exotic touch to this photo of an unknown model who posed for 90% or more of Durieu's male nudes.  (In about 75% of those, he is shown with a staff.)  The man is in superb physical shape, and this was 1855, decades before bodybuilding hit the scene.

While it might be a bit unfortunate that the model's face is obscured in this photo, 

his musculature is on full display, and it impresses.

I have seen this photo attributed to both Durieu and his artist friend Eugene Delacroix, 

so I'm using it as a transition to our Friday night art lesson featuring Delacroix's work.  

The setting and the model do both look different from the bulk of Durieu's photos.

More Miners by Request

A blog follower whose beloved father was a Welsh miner requested some more photos on that theme, and I am glad to oblige.  We start with solitary happy looking man in the shower changing room.

Here's a delightful assortment of shower derrieres.

I think this color photo is from the 1970's, and it's an 

example of the "helping hands" type that I like so much.

Shower room steam is much in evidence here, but it is atmospheric after all.

Well, we might say that this is not the best camera alignment, given the number of heads "cut off."

But on the other hand, we can also say that some important and interesting parts got left in.

This is a bonus shot for the always loyal and appreciative Bum Brigade.

I think this miner is getting a bucket bath for two reasons.  First there is no shower stream in evidence, and second, he'd be crazy to shower next to that electrical mains switch box.

Don Fuller Day, Part 2 - Almost as Good with Pants

In part two of today's Don Fuller extravaganza, I'm posting some photos of him in various stages of being dressed . . . or undressed.  The man looked great either way.  In my many years of collecting vintage photos, it is quite usual to encounter loads of photos where the photographer is known but the models are not.  In Don Fuller's case, the opposite is true in that I have many more photos of him lacking the photographer's name than having it.  Odd, that.

I've always found this photo of Don Fuller on a leopard skin with a book to be fascinating.  The cover says "The Aztec 2012," and I wonder if that was some 1950's predecessor to the Mayan end of the world story of seven years ago, or if someone photoshopped it.

I'm generally not a big fan of posing strap photos, but this 

one of Don Fuller and Kip Behar is too good to pass up.

This shot of Don Fuller and a motorcycle in L.A. was one of the most popular 

photos ever of a guy with pants on my old tumblr.

Although this photo of Don Fuller getting out of his Levis came to me with no photographer listed, that looks a lot like Bob Mizer's roof to me.  AMG?

Don Fuller Day, Part 1 - Nudes

Don Fuller was a busy model and aspiring actor active in physique photography circles in the mid-1950's.  He was known to have worked for Bob Mizer of AMG, Bruce of LA, Chuck Renslow of Kris, R.A. Enterprises (Apollo), and probably some I don't know about.  Mizer described him in his model notes as bisexual, an accomplished hustler, sexually versatile, “a glutton,” and also fond of girls.  Like I said, one very busy guy . . . and very good looking, so it's Don Fuller day!

The photographer of this picture is unknown, at least to me.

This is the first of two derriere shots of Don Fuller by Bruce of LA in today's series.  That's mostly because Don made very few full on frontal nudes during his modeling career.  (I have exactly five in my rather extensive collection.)  I know his handsome bum will make someone happy, though.

Don Fuller looks a bit caught off guard coming out of the shower in 

this photo by an unknown (to me, at least) photographer.

I'm not completely certain, but I do have a Bruce of LA photographer attribution 

for this double derriere shot featuring Don Fuller (left) with Kip Behar.

Like so many of my photos of Don Fuller, I don't know the

 photographer of this typical physique era pose.

Sports (other than volleyball) Day at the Nudist Camp

On my old tumblr there was a standing joke about nudists' predilection for playing volleyball, but today we take a look as some of their other sports pursuits.  I have a hard time wrapping my head around naked men doing fencing, but apparently it happened.

I think this is a type of French lawn bowling called petanque.  

The guy at right looks like he's having a lot of fun.

Shuffleboard must have been popular at nudist camps, 

because I have almost a dozen photos of this type.

Phill here seems to be enjoying his game of ping pong. 

Is this some kind of toned down version of jai alai?

Arax Studio of Paris

Gregor Arax was active through his Arax Studio of Paris from 1936 to about 1970.  Today will be the second series I've posted here on Blogger of this great photographer's work, and the photos will span almost the entirety of his long career.  We start with what is probably the most recent Arax photo in my collection, a shot of Helmut Riedmeier from the late 1960's.

Arax took this photo of Herni Moolenaar in 1952.  The "man with staff" motif was quite 

common in physique photography over several decades from the late 1930's to early 60's, 

but this one has always stood out from the crowd for me.