Gerhard Riebicke Day

Gerhard Riebicke was one of the best interwar German photographers of nudes, both male and female.  For our purposes, of course,we will focus on the males, starting with this man on a beach.

 

Balls

Riebicke took a lot of pictures of men doing various things with balls.

You'll see several more photos of the sort today.

 

Exercising?

Not that it matters, but I'm guessing this is some sort of exercise.

 

Shower

I found this Riebicke photo of an older man showering last December.

 

Quintet

Here we have five young men working out with cannonballs.

Disclosure:  I removed yellowing from this one.

 

Riebicke and FKK

I may have posted this one in an FKK set a while back,

but I just found out it is both by Riebick and FKK.

 

"New" Version

I published a slightly different version of the photo a few years ago,

but I like the "new" one I recently found better because it's clearer.

 

Wrestlers

This is my favorite of the day.

 

Standing

Although technically not the best of Riebicke, I like this standing male.

 

Jump!

Ending the set with a man jumping, hopefully for joy.

 

Riebicke?

Our last 1951 photo from a German magazine matches a location and the style used by Gerhard Riebicke, but my source did list a photographer.  Herr Riebicke lived until 1957, so it might be his.

 

Gerhard Riebicke Mix

Today we take another look at the work of Gerhard Riebicke, one of my favorite 

German photographers.  We start with a young man leaning against an ornate 

terrace wall that appears in a number of this photographer's works.

 

A different sort

I included this one because it shows a different sort of artistry from Herr Riebicke's usual focus on athleticism. The man, the shadows, the water, and backgound trees combine beautifully.

 

Jump!

The sheer verticality of this photo makes me think it was cropped from a larger image.

 

1927

In 1927 there were practically no restrictions on artistic presentation of male frontal nudity in Germany, but for some reason, Herr Riebicke chose to use a posing strap here.  Perhaps this model preferred it that way.  In any case, such devices are in the distinct minority in his work.

 

1931

This wrestling photo from a 1931 magazine is my favorite of the day by far.

The aesthetics more than overcome the print media shortcomings.

 

Early work

The vintage resale website where I found this dated it as 1930s, but the loincloth the athlete is wearing looks earlier than that.  Herr Riebicke was active in professional photography as early as 1909 as a photojournalist, so it could possibly go that far back.

 

Not what you think

Much of Riebicke's work was documentary in nature, and this is an image from a series he did on a lifeguard training course.  The grin on the standing man's face shouts, "I'm loving this!"

 

Floral

I ran a different photo of the same model in front of the same bank of flowers a few months ago, but I came across this one in a different pose from what had to be the same session.  I like this one even better because of the great smile on the model's face.

 

Proud and Confident

This German swimmer looks proud and confident,

and I think the suit insignia is pre-Nazi.