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Monday, July 8, 2024

Photoshopped




The model here is Willy Schmeltzkopf, an early 20th C. strong man who posed in 1913 in a boat wearing a fig leaf, above.  Someone came along a hundred years later and photoshopped him, below.  For once, I thought something wasn't right, and my research bore that out.  FWIW, at first glance the photoshopped version made me think of Bruce Weber's Bear Pond series.





 

12 comments:

  1. Can't say I mind the photoshopped picture. BigDude.

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  2. Everyman's built-in plumb bob, does tend to out the fakes. Oh, that the original was nude, though.

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  3. The Original Photo looks like the fig leaf was drawn on after he posed Nude. Sort of like what Physique Photographers used to do with adding Posing Pouches to fully nude models to get around the laws about fully Nude Men. It does not look like Willy was actually wearing that fig leaf when the photo was shot.

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  4. Auch bekannt Willy Olympier.
    Er spezialisierte sich auf Tableaux Vivants - lebende Skuplturen der klassischen Antike, eine beliebte Unterhaltungsform von 1900-1914.
    Schmelzkopf war ein bekannter Kunstsammler in Hamburg.

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    2. Willy Schmelzkopf (no t). Schmelzkopf also authored the following book under his stage name:

      Willy Olympier, Körperkultur (Body Culture), Gose & Tetzlaff, Berlin
      1906.
      "A scarce illustrated handbook for male physical culture, with 1 original silver bromide image and 44 half-tone photo illustrations. Olympier was a bodybuilder in Hamburg and this appears to be his only publication."

      In the spring of 2023, this title appeared in the Spring 2023 sale catalog of Elysium Books (Norwich, Vermont), iteim #46.

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    3. Also see pg. 88 of the following for another image of Willy:

      Chapman, David L. 2013. Universal Hunks a Pictorial History of Muscular Men around the World. Vancouver, British Columbia: Arsenal Pulp Press. https://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781551525105.

      He was part of the Olympier Trio, consisting of brothers Otto, Hans, and Willy.

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