Don Whitman of WPG didn't publish any full frontal male nudes until it became legal.
In fact, it isn't clear (to me, anyway) that he even took any for private use. This image
of Bill Melby in a posing strap is still a very appealing and well done work.
No, Don Whitman seems not to have risked full-nude photography at that time. But as I have pointed out before, he did provide his models with posing straps with discernibly smaller pouches than most other photographers, which left absolutely nothing to the imagination and often exposed pubic hair. Bill Melby is no exception here. That he avoided prosecution was perhaps because his work was mostly of bona fide bodybuilders on the circuit and his imagery most definitely a legacy of the Victorian "strong man" tradition.
ReplyDeleteAll true. Plus, adding to Mr. Whitman's "bona fide" credentials was the fact that he actually founded and sponsored a nationally recognized bodybuilding competition in Denver.
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