Vintage Muscle Men: December 2023

Sunday, December 31, 2023

New Year's Eve

It's time for the annual New Year's Eve special,

and of course it will be a gay old time.

Airline liquor

This guy looks like he saved up those little airline liquor bottles.

Outside in the snow

I don't know why these two are drinking their wine outside in the snow.

Maybe the photographer didn't have a flash for an indoor shot.

Straight guys?

These are supposed to be drunken straight guys from some amateur sports team,

but I have my doubts that they stayed straight for all that long.

Basement gay club

Here we have a holiday party in what appears to be a basement gay nightclub.

Nebraska or some such

I think Bruce Bellas took this on one of his trips home to the Midwest.

Berlin 1929

Silhouette was a gay men's club in Berlin in the pre-Nazi years,

and the montage above was from their promotional post card.

Huddle

I'm guessing that these guys are huddled around the liquor cabinet.

Atrocities!

The bartender is obviously the only one with any taste in this photo. I suspect he's thinking,

"Lordy, do those two have any idea how stupid they look? I hope they go home with each other soon." The best excuse I can make for them is that their mothers gave them those outfits for Christmas and made them promise to wear them for New Years.

Running out

He's going to have to send out for more liquor if he's planning on a party.

New York Gay New Years

And our last photo is supposed to be a group of gays celebrating the New Year in New York City around 1960. They look like they were having a great time.

To each and every one of you I send

my best wishes for a happy, healthy,

safe, and prosperous 2024!

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Raymond "Czanara" Carrance via Galerie au Bonheur

In my last series from the Galerie au Bonheur's collection, I posted one photo by Raymond "Czanara" Carrance (1921-1988), a somewhat obscure photographer. Today I'm posting more of his work. I'd love to share more of his biography, but little is known other than that he mainly worked in Paris as a book illustrator. In fact, it was a bookseller and collector who bought Mr. Carrance's photo and drawing work from an estate sale and preserved them. While he did have a few shows during his lifetime, his work remains somewhat obscure, despite the publication of several books featuring his photos and art. We start today's set with a man from 1960 on a driftwood log.

Blanket 1960

You derriere fanciers will no doubt enjoy this Czanara model on a plaid blanket.

Hanging in there

First, I really like this one a lot. But I have to ask, "How did they do that?"

Off center

The off center position of the model combines with the lighting for a nice effect here.

Drawing

Raymond "Czanara" Carrance was also an accomplished. This is the only example I could find in the Galerie au Bonheur collection, but I found a number of others on line that will be posted later.

Rocks galore

I like the composition of this Czanara photo with the model sprawled among different sized rocks.

Another from 1960

A large number of Carrance/Czanara's works are dated 1960, and it isn't clear if he went

through a frenzy of male nude photography that year, or if the curators who discovered

his work simply put their best rounded up or down date on the pieces.

Water or wine?

Is this guy pouring water or wine? Carrance did some work in Italy, and this might be an example.

Disclosure: I removed the Galerie au Bonheur watermark that was blocking a key element.

Silhouette

There are several more seaside silhouette photos in my files by Czanara, but this is the only one

currently in the Galerie au Bonheur collection. I'll put some more in a future series.

Jawbone

There might be some biblical reference in this Czanara

photo of a young man weilding a jawbone.

Friday, December 29, 2023

FKK - The 1950s Comeback

The Nazis banned the FKK movement in the early days of their regime. It wasn't because they were necessarily against nudity. Just look at the Nazi sponsored scuptures of Arno Breker and others for proof of that. The generally accepted reason is that they didn't want any cultural or philosophical groups on the scale of FKK that didn't focus on Nazi ideology. In the immediate postwar years, Germans were too busy just trying to survive and rebuild to do much else, but by 1950 they were back in the great outdoors in the nude. Today we take a stroll through the 1950s with FKK, starting with this fellow from 1950 at a rural footpath gate.

1951 I

In the first of four photos from 1951, we see an attractive man

who is either playing with a ball or a kettle bell. I can't tell which.

1951 II

Our second shot from 1951 shows a man engaging in a

favorite gag passtime for FKKers, the cave man pageant.

1951 III

I'm probably showing my ignorance about weightlifting, but isn't that not the best way to do it? It looks like he's about to topple over or drop the barbell behind him. From 1951.

1951 IV

Our fourth photo from 1951 shows a man enjoyng himself.

1952

Although I'm fairly certain it isn't his, the quality in this

1952 picture of a shot putter rivals that of Riebicke.

1954

The athletic shoes make me think these two were engaged in sports.

1955

Interesting shadows in this 1955 picture.

1957 I

A young man with a bit of a Buddy Holly look is shaving next to a hand pump in the 1957 FKK photo. I do wonder if the water would have been salty, but perhaps this was an inland dune area.

1957 II

Our second photo from 1957 and last from the day shows

a middle age man helping somone up a steep slope.

Thursday, December 28, 2023

The Ritter Brothers

I was researching a series on the 1930s when I came across this photo labeled as "Lou Gararini by the Ritter Brothers." I was able to verify neither the attribution nor the model's name, and I have to say I have my doubts about the brothers having done it as the setting doesn't resemble their known work. Still, it's a great photo, and I'm including with nine photos of and by the Ritters.

Oh, and I will post a mixed set from the 1930s soon.

Unknown

This unknown model posed in the Ritter Brothers' home studio.

They were known for taking men home from the gym for photo sessions.

William by Fred

Multiple commemorative and resale websites attribute

this lovely photo of William Ritter to brother Fred.

Lynes

The men, the shadows, and the patterns in the plywood all combine

nicely in this George Platt Lynes photo of the Ritter Brothers.

Unknowns

These two unknown model posed somewhat suggestively for the Ritter Brothers.

Catalog Page

This apparent catalog page seems to have drawn in posing straps,

a common measure in the late 1930s and into the 40s.

Blurry Brothers

Google Lens was no help in determining who took this picture of the brothes in a

countryside setting. As you will see later today, George Platt Lynes did a great outdoor

shoot with the pair. They also, however, did the same on their own, and I think this is

a duo selfie, mainly because Lynes' work was almost invariably more technically

precise than this. I could be wrong, though. I've been wrong lots and lots of times.

William

William Ritter seems to have posed solo more than his brother Fred, leading many observers to the conclusion that Fred was the better photographer. In the case of this photo, however, the waters are muddied because some, but far from all, resellers have labeled this as by Lynes. Although there may well be some, I've never found a solo Ritter stongly authenticated as Lynes'.

One More by Lynes

George Platt Lynes didn't do all that many outdoor photo shoots but the one he did with the Ritter Brothers is quite memorable. The posing and composition here are noteworthy.