In 1947, he began advertising his photographs in the back pages of the bodybuilding magazine Strength & Health, along with other gay physique photographers of the time. īob Mizer began his work as a physique photographer in the early 1940s, photographing young men at Muscle Beach. Physique Pictorial was published in Los Angeles by Mizer's Athletic Model Guild, an ersatz modeling agency that provided cover for the publishing of the magazine, and the sale of photographs and film strips through the magazine. The magazine also served as a venue for homoerotic artists including Touko Laaksonen (as Tom of Finland), George Quaintance, and Dom Orejudos (as 'Etienne'), and was a predecessor to later overtly homosexual publications. The pages of Physique Pictorial primarily featured the photography of Bob Mizer, who also served as the magazine’s publisher and editor, consisting of black and white photos of athletic young men, either nude or nearly so. During its run from 1951 to 1990 as a quarterly publication, it exemplified the use of bodybuilding culture and classical art figure posing, as a cover for homoerotic male images, and to evade charges of obscenity. Physique Pictorial is an American magazine, one of the leading beefcake magazines of the mid-20th century. Today we celebrate the photographer’s life and work with 45 of our favorite photos from the Bob Mizer collection.Physique Pictorial, volume 5 number 2, Summer 1955 The Bob Mizer Foundation continues to preserve his legacy by diligently sharing his photographs, camera equipment, camera sets, and props with people now and generations in the future. Many of his photographs are on display in the Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art, located in New York. Today, Mizer’s work continues to represent the queer liberation movement. Related | 29 Photos of Young Gay Love in Asia In 1947, Mizer was arrested for photographing a seventeen-year-old model and was sentenced to six months in prison. The photo journal helped raise awareness in the queer community regarding the emergence of a queer liberation movement.Īt the time, many considered Mizer’s photographs graphic and garnered law enforcement attention. Mizer’s Physique Pictorial offered more than a source of entertainment for consumers. Unique for the time, Mizer dabbled in color photography and self-produced original color photographs. Related | 25 Underwater Portraits to Remember Photographer Lucas Murnaghan Still, Mizer secretly targeted its content to an underground audience of queer men. Mizer marketed Physique Pictorial as a fitness magazine to achieve widespread distribution. Mizer began publishing Physique Pictorial from his studio, one of the first publications to distribute erotic photographs of muscular men. In 1945, he founded his studio in Pico-Union, known as the Athletic Model Guild (AMG). Comments Photographer Bob Mizer founded one of the first male-focused publications in the 1940s, Physique Pictorial.īorn on March 27, 1922, in Hailey, Idaho, photographer Bob Mizer is best known for photographing bodybuilders and examining American masculinity through photography.

Pictorial magazine