Artists - Part 87

Pierre et Gilles

Pierre Commoy, born in 1950, and Gilles Blanchard, born in 1953, are a French couple who produce artworks combining photography and painting.  They met in 1976, fell in love, and have lived and worked together ever since.  Much of their work features nude males.

Pierre is a photographer.  He photographs the models.  The photo is then printed on cloth, and Gilles, the artist, adds to the piece, painting by hand.  The result is a combination of photo and art.  No Photoshop or digital manipulation is involved.

Above, Midnight Cowboy, 1995.

Presque Rien (Almost Nothing), 2000.

Many of their works feature mythological characters.  Above, Ganymede, 2001, is mesmerized by an eagle representing Zeus.  In Greek mythology, Ganymede was a handsome mortal who became the cup-bearer and gay lover of Zeus, the king of the gods.  Zeus was bi.

Mercury, 2001, the Roman god of messages and communication.

Apollo, 2005, considered to be the most beautiful of the male Greek gods.

David and Jonathan, 2005, illustrates the Biblical lovers.

Vive la France, 2006, features models Serge, Moussa and Roberto as football (soccer) players.  The black, Arabic and white players represent France's multi-ethnic population, and the French national colors blue, white and red are everywhere.  This work caused public controversy because of its frontal nudity when it was displayed on large street posters in Vienna for an art exhibition.

Matador, 2011.

Narcissus, 2012.  In Greek mythology, he was so beautiful that he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water. 

Pierre and Gilles are still active.  We end with Petit Matin (Early Morning), painted in 2024.

Beach Bums - Part 81

Mazo Beach, Wisconsin

Mazo Beach, Wisconsin was the site of the National Nude Beach Weekend in 1985.

Unlike other beaches we have seen, this is not a beach on the sea or on a lake.  It's a beach on a river: the Wisconsin River, which flows into the Mississippi.  It was one of the most popular nudist spots in the Midwest.

Playing bocce on Mazo Beach.

Mazo Beach is a nickname.  Officially, it's part of the Mazomanie Bottoms State Natural Area, about 6 miles southwest of Sauk City.

Although Bottoms refers to bottomland, which is low-lying land along a watercourse, I think the name Bottoms is appropriate for a nude beach.  We will see a few bottom views of a guy on Mazo Beach who calls himself Love It Wet.  Above, looking across the river.

A side view shows that he's well-equipped in front.

Here he is looking at and being looked at by some canoes heading down the river.

Hi, there, canoes!

Unfortunately, the state closed the beach in 2016, citing illegal drug use and public sexual activity on the beach.

Gods, Myths and Heroes - Part 78

Phallic Rocks, Hawaii

All over the world, people have seen certain rock formations as giant penises and made up stories to explain them.  Today we look at phallic rocks in Hawaii.

Above is the phallic rock on the island of Molokai called Ka ule o Nanahoa, which means the penis of Nanahoa.  Nanahoa was a fertility god.

You can see the size of the rock next to this visitor, who seems to have been inspired by the phallic idea.

This sign explains the legend of Nanahoa and the phallic rock.

Another phallic rock is the 1200-foot-high Iao Needle on Maui.  There are two Hawaiian legends about it.  One is that it is the phallus of Kanaloa, the god of the ocean.  The other is that the god Maui had a daughter, Iao, and she was in love with a demigod Pu'uokamoa.  When Maui found out, he was so angry that he turned Pu'uokamoa into this stone pillar.

Continuing the phallic theme, here is the late Kirill Tokarev, one of my favorite unashamed males, in front of the Iao Needle.

Iao Needle is also historically significant.  A battle was fought here in 1790 by Kamehameha in his successful bid to become the first king of all the Hawaiian islands.

This stone is in the Kawaiahao churchyard cemetery in Honolulu.  It was said to be culturally significant to ancient Hawaiians.  Then Christians turned it into a gravestone.  Although the cultural significance was not described, I'm betting that it was a phallic rock.

This is one of the "lava trees" in Lava Tree State Monument on the island of Hawaii.  The lava trees were formed by a lava flow that swept through a forested area in 1790 and apparently congealed around some tree trunks.  Although there is no mention that this was considered a phallic rock, how can you look at it and not think of a penis?

We end with the famous Ka ule o Kamehameha, the penis of Kamehameha, inside the crater of the Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii, with a tourist inspired by the phallic subject.

OK, I lied.  This is a fake photo.  I started with a photo of man who was really naked in the crater of Kilauea, and I added the "phallic rock" in Photoshop.  But if it did exist, it would be quite a tourist attraction, wouldn't it?

World Naked Bike Ride - Part 87

 Philadelphia 2025

The Philadelphia World Naked Bike Ride is one of the world's largest, in terms of the number of participants.  Last year it was held on August 23, and riders gathered at Lemon Hill in Fairmont Park before the start of the ride.

I was surprised to see one guy doing an improvised tightrope walk in the park.

A rear view of the tightrope walker.

A rider posing with a park statue called Maja.

In most World Naked Bike Rides, some riders get slogans painted on their bodies to support the WNBR goals: first, educating drivers to be careful around bicycles, and second, encouraging people to ride bikes instead of driving cars, because cars generate pollution.

But I didn't see such slogans on the Philly bike riders.  However, riders had a few other painted slogans.  Many of them just said PNBR, for Philly Naked Bike Ride.  This guy is telling you not to eat animals (presumably he's a vegetarian), but it's OK to eat something else.

This guy claims that tall bikes save the world.  I have no idea why.  We'll see him later.

And this political message has become ubiquitous.

Then the ride began through the streets of Philadelphia.

A local college student smiles as the ride goes down Market Street.

Here's the guy on the tall bike.  Is he saving the world?

The riders pass City Hall, the building in the background.

Like all World Naked Bike Rides, not everyone rides a bike, and not everyone is naked.  It's "as bare as you dare".

We end with a video clip of the riders from above, shot from a tall building.

Estonian Photos - Part 43

Estonian Photos

We continue our series of photos from the Tartu Ülikooli museum of anthropology in Estonia.

For those who haven't seen my previous posts in this series, a few words of explanation.  The museum provides no information about the men, other than the photos came from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu.  In particular, it does not say who these men are, or when or why the photos were taken.  However, the photos are labeled "Füüsilise antropoloogia pildistus" (physical anthropology photography).

Who are these men?  My best guess is that they are military recruits.  The very short haircuts suggest that these photos were taken during or shortly after the enlistment process.

Some of the men in this series have dark faces and hands.  Are they are tanned from working outside like farmers, or are they dirty from some dirty occupation?  We don't know.

Note: the dark faces and hands are not as visible in today's post as in some previous posts, but darker hands are visible in some of the side views.  Perhaps the photos in today's post were taken in the winter, when farmers would not be spending as much time outside getting tanned.

When were the photos taken?  My best guess is between World War I and World War II, when Estonia was an independent country with its own military.  Before WWI, Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, and after WWII, Estonia was part of the Soviet Union until 1991.

A clue to the time frame is that these photographs were made on glass plates, not film.  Dry glass-plate photography started in 1871 and began to fall out of use in the 1920s.  I found some references to it in Estonia through the 1930s.

One other clue to the time frame of these photos is that in two previous batches, one of the men is wearing a wristwatch.   Wristwatches were considered to be for ladies before World War I.  (Men used pocket watches.)  However, during the war, wristwatches proved very useful for soldiers and pilots.  After WWI, wristwatches came into fashion for men.

Although wristwatches were evidently rare in Estonia (only two men wore a wristwatch among the hundreds that were photographed), it suggests that these photos are post-World War I.

Since the use of glass plates fell out of use in the 1920s, I think the photos were most likely taken shortly after World War I.

Although these appear to be military recruits, these are probably not military photos.  We know that the museum that currently has the photos got them from the Institute of Anatomy at the University of Tartu.  If these are military photos, why would they end up at the Institute of Anatomy?

I believe the photos were taken by academics doing a study of physical anthropology.  Scientists at the Institute of Anatomy were trying to measure what they considered racial characteristics of the population by measuring the body, including phrenology (measuring the skull), ideas which are now discredited.

I think that the scientists at the Institute of Anatomy may have persuaded the military to let them take photographs of the naked new recruits for "research" purposes.  I have no written evidence to support this idea, but since the photos were at the Institute of Anatomy, and the photo subjects appear to be military recruits, it's now my best guess as to what happened.

One other question that perennially arises from these photos is: why were the men photographed in pairs?  Was it to save film?

The answer is that these photos were made on glass plates, not film, but glass plates were more expensive and involved more labor than film, so yes, it's likely that the men were photographed in pairs to save on glass plates.

So, bottom line: My best guess is that these photos were taken after World War I, the subjects are new or recent Army recruits, and the Estonian military allowed scientists from the Institute of Anatomy to take photos of the naked recruits for a study of physical anthropology.