Photographers - Part 81

Arthur Schulz

Today we look at photos by German sculptor and photographer Arthur Schulz (1873-1943), above.

Schulz published a book Italienische Acte (Italian Acts), 1905.  The book contained 50 pages of high quality plates, mostly containing one nude photo per page.  The nudes are both male and female, but of course we're concentrating on the males.  The rest of this post shows photos from the book.

Page 1.  The models are not identified by name.

Page 2.  Two men in a wrestling pose.

Page 16 contained two photos: this photo of two men with a sword ...

and this photo of one of the men.

Page 21.  A man with a pole.

Page 26.  Man with a harp.

Page 29.  The same man we saw on page 1.

Page 32.  Two men with a small tree.  The image of the original page was very deteriorated.  I got this cleaned-up photo from Vintage Muscle Men.  Thanks, Jerry!

Page 35.  Man and youth with panpipes.

Page 40.  An outdoor pose.

We end with page 50, the last page, a youth atop a garden column.

Calendars - Part 82

SWC Calendar Boys

Today's photos were taken for a 2017 nude calendar put out by SWC, a British company that manufactures products used in home construction, including tools, doors and windows.  Most nude calendars are put out by athletic groups or school teams, so it's unusual to have one from a corporation.

Above, the calendar photo for January has some of the company's products in the background.

February.  Like most of these calendars, they hid frontal views.  I like what the guy on the right is using to conceal his private parts: a picture of a rooster, i.e. a cock.

March.  The second guy from the left is using a tape measure.  You get one guess as to what he's measuring.

April.  Unlike most of these nude calendars, the subjects were not hunky athletes or models.  The calendar models were company employees.

May.  So what if they don't look like professional models?  I think the fact that employees were willing to pose nude for a charity calendar is endearing.

June.  Have a look at our brochures.

July.  One of their finished products, a window.

August.  A company star?

September.  Guys and their equipment.

October, with Halloween props.

November.  Like many British nude calendars, the profits from the calendar went to charity.  In this case, it was two charities: MIND, a mental health charity, and Prostate Cancer UK.

We end with December, showing a group of "SWC calendar boys."

National Condom Month

National Condom Month

February is National Condom Month.  It's a reminder to be prepared.

As a public service, here's a video by Brent Corrigan on how to use a condom ... and he doesn't just tell you, he shows you.

Protests - Part 81

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 60

Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are posture photos of ten more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.

This is Yale freshman John M. Kohler, Jr. on October 16, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

This is Yale freshman Ogden R. Conkey on October 16, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.

This is Yale freshman P. C. on October 16, 1953.

The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Charles Bailey Davidson on December 11, 1951.

Photos taken before 1952 show only a side view.

This is Yale freshman David Bernath McBrayer on January 13, 1951.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman Edward L. Chainski on February 1, 1951.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

This is Yale freshman John Garrett Kolakowski on January 12, 1951.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.

This is Yale freshman Robert George Kleckner, Jr. on March 5, 1951.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.

This is Yale freshman Roger Clinton Evans on March 5, 1951.

The photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman William Rockefeller McAlpin, Jr. on February 1, 1951.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

*          *          *

Note: some of my followers consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive.  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses and relatives of the deceased person.

I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Bodybuilders - Part 33b

Deriaz Brothers, part 2

Yesterday we looked at Adrien Deriaz.  Today we look at his six brothers who were all born in Switzerland in the late 1800s and then moved to France to become strongmen and wrestlers.

Maurice Deriaz (1885-1974) was one of the most famous of the brothers.  Above, he does the one-armed "clean and jerk" with a 228 pound weight, setting a new record.  He was also a wrestler, beating 44 opponents in a row to win a Greco-Roman wrestling tournament.

Above, Maurice in a photo by Deruchin.  I got the photo from Vintage Muscle Men (thanks, Jerry).

Maurice was a favorite model for Gustave Courtois, as I reported in an earlier post about that artist, and the strongman and artist may have been lovers.  Above, Maurice was the model for Paradise Lost by Courtois.

The other famous Deriaz brother was the oldest brother, Emile (1879-1939), above.  He could perform a standing broad jump of more than 10 feet.

Emile set a record of 193 pounds in the one hand swing weightlifting event.

Photos of the other brothers are scarce.  Above, Jules Deriaz.  The photo was labeled "Jules Deriaz, leveur de poids" (weightlifter).

Octave Deriaz.  The caption means "champion of light weights."

Above, brothers Ulysse (at left) and Maurice (at right) with Ulysse's son Samson.  I got this from Vintage Muscle Men (thanks, Jerry).

There was a seventh brother, Florian.  I was unable to find any photos or information about him.

We end with some photos that Paul Richer took of Adrien Deriaz (at right) and two of his brothers.  The brothers were not identified, but the one at left looks like Octave, and the one in the center looks like Maurice.

And here is Paul Richer's rear view of the three Deriaz brothers.  Photo from Vintage Muscle Men (thanks, Jerry).