White on Black - Ten by Pat Milo

Nearly all the classic era physique photographers used a black background with a well lighted model at least occasionally.  I don't think anyone did it better than Pat Milo, though, and today we will look at ten examples of his efforts.  We start with Jack Virgil, who seems to be saying,

"OK, I know what you want, so come and get it."

 

John I

John Haley is the first of two fellows named John in today's set.

Hopefully, that interesting undergarment will draw a comment from Calorman.

 

Cliff

This is Cliff Cotter according to a very well researched website,

but I've seen it spelled (or misspelled) as Cotler and Catler.

 

Jim I

Jim Bouvier is the first of two men with that first name in today's series.

All the other shots I have of this model are frontal nudes, but this is nice.

 

Tom

Our only offering today for you derriere fanciers is this stark shot of Tom January.

 

John II

The second John in the series was surnamed Davidson, and I can't 

help but think he was glad when this particular pose was finished.

 

Randy

Although his smile is a teeny bit tentative, Randy Cornelius might bring a grin to some of you.

 

Howard

Sparring was the pose Pat Milo used for Howard Heidtmann.

 

Jim II

Our second model named Jim is Jim Nelson, and what a fine specimen of masculinity he is.

 

Larry

Finishing the Pat Milo "White on Black" series with Larry Scott, a very successful 

competitive body builder for whom Mr. Milo was said to have had a crush.

 

George Platt Lynes

Between the Kinsey Institute opening up more of their collection to digital sharing and the sale of some previously unknown works given to his friends, some "new" works by George Platt Lynes have come into my hands.  (Plus a few "old" one I didn't have.)  So today I'll share some with you.

We start with Bill Harris gazing upward into the light.

 

Chuck Howard?

Chuck Howard was photographed by both Lynes and Jared French, and my copies of those photos don't look much like this guy who was labeled as Chuck on a reputable resale website.  Anybody know?

 

Trio

This one is all about light, shadow, and that delightful derriere.

 

Chester

We're more accustomed to seeing Chester Nielson undressed, but he 

does look good in this house that looks like it's under demolition.

 

Shades

The differing shades of light on the four models makes this one interesting.  The guy at lower left reminds me of Tex Smutney before he bleached his hair, but I'm not sure that's who he is.

 

1941

The only information that came with this interesting Lynes photo was 1941, the year it was made.  

War was on everyone's mind, so it probably had something to do with that thematically.

 

Robert

Lynes used this lighting technique several times, and

 it gives a watery luminance to Robert Rolf's body.

 

Unknown

At first glance, I thought that hairy chest might belong to Chuck Howard, but a 

comparison of the patterns left me thinking otherwise.  (It may be Buddy McCarthy.) 

I love the way the flesh, the fur, and the skeletal drawing are juxtaposed.

 

Mel

The lighting works well with the posing and composition 

in this photo of Mel Fellini.

 

Recent find

This one of 24 G.P. Lynes photos that came to light in 2019 when a private collection 

was sold at an estate sale.  (Or so my source says.)  The model is unknown.

 

Pop-up!

 Mike Bradburn Pop-up

Having completed some projects here at my home, I have a bit more time, so I'm starting a new 

group of posts I will call pop-ups.  These will be occasional short series on days I don't normally

 put up a full set.  I'm starting with Mike Bradburn from Kris Studio because a kind viewer, 

Roger A., recently sent me the three solo shots of him in today's group.  We start with a great

 muscle man pose showing Mr. Bradburn from heat to toe.  Thanks, Roger!

Mike and Ron I

I ran a different (and color) shot from this same series last year, and James IV of the blog Men From Back Then let us know that it was from the "Cabin in the Woods" movie.  I had a huge duhhhhh moment when I looked and found this photo in the same file folder.  So here it is.

 

Color

Although he definitely took some full frontal nudes of certain models during the time it 

was officially illegal to do so, Chuck Renslow's photos of Mike Bradburn appear to be two 

distinct groups.  All the photos of him in my collection where he looks younger and leaner are 

posing strap or semi-nude, while the full frontal shots show a beefier and likely older model.

 

Mike and Ron II

I don't know if this was done at or near the same time as "Cabin in the Woods,"

but Bradburn and Rector did a memorable still series based on this motif.

Would you look at all those muscles?

 

Younger?

A young and lean Mike Bradburn appears in this Kris posing strap photo.

I'm guessing it was early in his modeling career.

 

Douglas of Detroit Day

I recently realized that it's been too long since I did a series honoring Doug Juleff, aka Douglas of Detroit.  Victim of a 1958 raid by the Detroit Police aided by his own father, Mr. Juleff was jailed and much of his portfolio destroyed.  All that remained were the pictures already in circulation and a small group that he had moved to a friend's home shortly before the raid.  A very talented man, he never went back to physique photography, even after liberalization.  Thanks to collectors who have shared their images, we do have a sizable body of work, but are left wondering what was lost forever.  We start the show with this dramatically lighted photo of Bill Cooper.

 

Jim

Jim Payne posed for this magazine cover on the shores of Lake Michigan.  I found an attribution of this to Douglas of Detroit, but no other photos of him by Doug Juleff.  He was, however, photographed by Bob Delmonteque, one of Mr. Juleff's models who went into photography himself.  That leaves me wondering if Bob may have taken this 1955 picture.  Mr. Payne was as California based competitive bodybuilder who was Mr. America in the early 1950s.

 

Larry

You are to be forgiven if you mistook this Douglas of Detroit photo of Larry Steiner and his curly blond locks for Fred Kovert's work.  The style is similar, what with the silent movie posture and pale complexion, and Doug Juleff's career took off about the same time Kovert killed himself.  

 

Unknown I

When it comes to identifying Douglas of Detroit's models, matters are complicated by the 

fact that many of his records were destroyed in the police raid.  Pictures already distributed up to 

that point often had no names attached, but painstaking detective work by archivists has produced 

some IDs.  Also, it is thought that Mr. Juleff  removed the names off some of his surviving work to protect his models from police harassment, something that actually happened in Detroit, but not 

many other places..  He seems to have been going for a Greek aesthetic in this photo.

 

Vic and friend

A rather young looking Vic Seipke (at right) poses with an unknown model here.

Mr. Seipke was one of Douglas of Detroits more prolific models, and like Bob Delmonteque,

he was known to have worked for some of the West Coast photographers.

 

Unknown II

Doug Juleff was known for his artistic overlays and double exposures.

This one of an unknown model is among the more artistic.

 

Ward

We'll never know if Ward Heath only posed for a few photos for Doug Juleff, or if some were destroyed or lost.  I've only been able to find about five or six and really want to see more.

 

Vic alone

Vic Seipke manages to impress even with pants on.  I have more color photos of Vic than

 any other model in my Douglas of Detroit collection, and they are all with trunks on.  I think 

Mr. Juleff may have planned to use them for magazine covers which were increasingly being 

done in color when his career was tragically brought to an early end.

 

Michael Craver

Michael Craver and his pencil thin mustache appeared in a number of Doug Juleff photos that seem to have been made in several sessions.  Sometimes we see him with drawn on posing straps, but not here..

 

Another unknown

Finishing our Douglas of Detroit series with an unknown semi-nude model who 

looks statuesque, but awkward.  The light coming off the sword adds interest.

 

Ancient Technology

During yet another round of home repairs, I recently had to move some boxes from attic storage and came across some old CDs containing the earliest elements of my digital image collection.  Today I am posting 10 photos from a disc labeled "Transferred from Zip Drive."  Remember those?  Fabulous 1990s technology!  At least I had the sense to transfer them to CD, which is now obsolete.  So now I need to store them in the cloud and/or put them on thumb drives.  I hope to live long enough to have to move them to the next big thing.  We start with something labeled R29.  Was 1929 the year?  The hair style looks like that period.

 

Helmet

This model is wearing what looks like a reasonably accurate copy of an ancient Roman helmet.

Unfortunately, I attached no description to it way back then.

 

Trio

These three remind me of Thomas Eakins' student models, but I have

 a hunch they may be French.  Regardless, it's a personal favorite photo.

 

1900

Sometimes all I put on these files in the way of information was a date, 1900 in this case. 

That might have been all I knew about it, or I might have been too lazy to add more.  I try 

to do better these days when adding new material, but it's hard if nothing's there..

 

Castanets?

Is this guy playing an imaginary set of castanets?   I can't think what else it might be.

"Classic Old" was the only label I put on this one way back then.

 

Neal

This is the "newest" file from the old CD I found, and it's labeled "Neal 1930."

I don't know if Neal was the photographer or the model, though.

 

Party gone wrong?

I've always thoroughly enjoyed this photo of a Bacchanalian wine party about to go bad.  It looks like one youth is distracting the older man with wine while the other is trying to stab him.  Perhaps one of you mythology buffs out there can tell us the exact origin in the comments.  I have seen this included in Max Koch's Der Act by some collectors, but Wikipedia Commons does not.

 

Bayard

I'm including this one, despite the very restrained nudity, because it has to be one of the very oldest photographs in my collection.  I've not only had it a very long time, but it was made in 1840!  It is a self portrait of Hypolite Bayard depicting himself as a drowned man.  Mr. Bayard must have spent a lot of time outdoors fully clothed as only his hands and face are tanned.  The hat may be just a prop.

 

Lalaing

Jacques Lalaing is credited for this lovely in the studio photo of a model.  It has the longest 

descriptive caption of any image on the CD, that being:  "Jacques de Lalaing (1858-1917) 

Estudio de un desnudo masculino, 1900, grabado en plata, Galerie Lumière des Roses 2"

 

German

The old CD only had "German" for a caption on this image

that looks like the work of Koch who produced Der Akt.

I think the model may have appeared there, too.

 

Western Photography Guild - At Home

Don Whitman of Western Photography Guild is best known for his outdoor work in 

stunning Western settings.  He did, however, do a moderately large volume of studio and 

indoor home work.  Today we will look at some items from several of his "at home" sets 

showing models in domestic settings.  We start with Steve Anthony raiding the fridge.

 

Color Unknown

While we have a wealth of outdoor color work from Western Photography Guild, 

we don't see much in the way of indoor color.  This is a nice exception where 

the model appears to be adjusting a thermostat.  Note the dumbbell on the floor.

 

Lynn

I didn't crop out Don Whitman's catalog tag on this shot of Lynn Finney for a couple of reasons.  

First, the piece was marketed on a resale website as Mr. Whitman's actual catalog sample.  

And second, it shows how meticulous he was when it came to organizing his portfolio.  

We even have a date for this one from the verso, October 16, 1973.

 

Terry

Terry Redpath did a rather extensive "at home" series for Don Whitman.

We'll see that dresser again later in today's set with a different model.

 

Andre and Tim

I made this composite to show y'all both sides of Andre Belval and Tim Richardson.