Performers - Part 68

 Juan Pablo di Pace

Juan Pablo di Pace is an Argentine actor born in 1979.  He began his career in England, where he appeared naked in a crowd scene in the Royal Opera House's production of the opera Rigoletto in 2001.  Years later, he became aware that the Royal Opera House was running a poster with a nude photo of him (above) to advertise another production of Rigoletto that di Pace was not in.

Another version of the poster (above) extended the cloth to cover the nudity.  Di Pace protested about the poster.  In the press, it was reported that he was upset that his naked image had been airbrushed to reduce the size of his penis.  Actually, he was protesting the use of his image without payment and without his consent.  The opera house stopped using the image.

In case you're curious, here's a video of his brief nude appearance in the opera.

He has also appeared nude in movies and on TV.  Above, he went skinny-dipping in the 2005 British film Survival Island.

He then moved to Spain, where he starred in the 2011 season of the Spanish TV series Física o Química (above).  In 2013 he moved to the U.S., where he appeared in the TV series Dallas.

In 2019 Di Pace came out publicly as gay.  He starred in the 2023 gay comedy-drama film The Mattachine Family, above.

Photographers - Part 69

Allan Teger

Allan Teger, born in 1942, was a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1975, thinking about how the structure of the universe repeated itself at different levels, an image came into his mind of a skier going down a woman's breast.  He knew he needed to capture that image, and more like it, on film.  He was a self-taught photographer, not a professional.  But he started making a series of photos that he called bodyscapes.  Above, Skier.

He left academics in 1981 to devote himself full-time to art photography.  Most of his bodyscapes were made using the female body, but he made some using the male body.  All of the remaining images are of male bodies.  Above, Crane, 1985.

Teger did not resort to photographer's tricks like using double exposures (or, these days, using Photoshop).  All of his images were made using little scale models actually placed on the body.  Above, Climbers.

In Climbing the mountain climbers are climbing up a muscular male arm.

Golf Cart.

Motorcycle.

Ski Bumm shows some skiers on a male landscape to complement the first skier image that we saw on a female breast.

We end with Big Turtle.

Calendars - Part 69

 The Farmers Calendar

Today we look at the 2025 Farmers Calendar, produced in Devon, England.

The Farmers Calendar is the brainchild of Nicola de Pulford, a photographer who has a small farm in Devon.

Mr. January is Lewis, above.

In 1999, export of British beef was banned due to mad cow disease.  Nicola turned to Paul Westlake, a young local farmer, and suggested another way to sell beef, i.e. a calendar of naked men, if he would agree to be a model.

Mr. February is Huw.

Paul agreed, and they rounded up eleven other guys as models.  Nicola photographed them naked and produced the first Farmers Calendar for the year 2000.

Mr. March is Nathan.

Nicola got 10,000 calendars printed, and their sale raised £5,000 for a charity.  Since then she has produced a calendar every year.

Mr. April is David.

Nicola says that none of the men in her calendars are professional models.  They're all real farmers.

Mr. May is Anthony.  The photo caption said "Finger licking good."

Mr. June is Anthony.

Mr. July is Mike.

Mr. August is Kit.

Mr. September is George.  The photo caption said "You can plow my furrow."

Mr. October is Chris.

Mr. November is John.

And Mr. December is James.

Each year Nicola also produces a Lady Farmers Calendar, a female naked calendar.  Sales of both calendars support charity.  The 2025 calendars are supporting Farms for City Children.

Protests - Part 69

Berlin International Film Festival

The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of Europe's Big Three film festivals, along with those in Cannes and Venice.

On Feb. 14, 2004, the festival was interrupted by a group of naked German university students (above).

The students were protesting the proposed introduction of university fees in Germany.  The message on one student's back "Jetzt greif mir in Tasche" means "Now reach into my pocket."

A final view of the student protesters.  They were quickly chased away by police.

Another naked protest happened on Feb. 12, 2010.  This protester showed up outside the Berlinale Palast, one of the theaters used by the film festival.  It's not clear what he was protesting.

He was quickly interviewed by police ...

and led away.  Berlin is cold in February, and there was snow on the ground.  Maybe not the best time to protest naked outdoors.

Memorial Day 2025

Memorial Day

Today is Memorial Day, when we honor U.S. military personnel who died while serving our country.  Above, Dan Lurie and his brother Morris.  Dan, at left, won 2nd place in the Mr. America contest.  Morris, at right, was in the Army in World War II and was killed in the invasion of Anzio, Italy in 1944.

Above is the Navy pre-flight school photo of Lowell William Saxton.  He was a Navy pilot in World War II and was killed on June 14, 1943.  I am not showing these photos to mock these men – I think there is nothing shameful about them – but to honor them.

This statue, called The Spirit of American Youth Rising From the Waves, is in the American Military Cemetery at Omaha Beach, Normandy, France.  Over 9000 men who were killed in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944 are buried there.

A rear view of that statue.  Today we honor those men and all the others who gave their lives for our country.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 48

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 eight more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive.  Two of these men may still be alive, so their names are redacted.

This is Yale freshman H. P. Barkley on December 17, 1952.

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

This is Yale freshman E. B. on February 5, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.

This is Yale freshman Robert Murray Barnes on October 15, 1952.

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 R. B. on November 21, 1952.

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

This is Yale freshman Nicholas Hoffman Bayard on February 17, 1953.

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

This is Yale freshman William Greeenough Thayer Shedd, Jr. on October 21, 1948.

Photos taken before 1952 show only a side view.

This is Yale freshman Dieter Herbert Von Hennig on October 8, 1948.

Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman James Francis Welsh on October 20, 1948.

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, children, grandchildren, etc. 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.

Ads - Part 67

VISA Running Man

In 2008 there was a VISA commercial featuring a naked running man.  The commercial starts with the man running in the desert, naked except for shoes, socks, and a VISA card.  He is then seen running while eating from a bag of chicken, but still naked, then hopping into some boots and overalls, as seen in the excerpts from the ad above.

The ad continues, showing him running through more landscapes, getting a moped, then reaching the city where he gets a suit, a ring, and finally arrives at a church in time for his wedding.  Presumably he bought all of these things with his VISA card.

The commercial was made by ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi, London, and it ran in Europe, but not in the U.S.

A screen grab from the commercial.

Another screen grab from the commercial.

At the end of the commercial, as the man approaches his bride, he exchanges a look with two young guys seated in the church (above).  The implication is that they are responsible for dumping him naked in the desert after his stag party.  Of course, all ends well because of VISA.  The whole thing is totally unrealistic – but it got us to watch the ad.

Bodybuilders - Part 20

Dick Dubois

Dick Dubois (1933-2007) won the Mr. America contest in 1954, above.

He was born in the Bronx in 1933.  His father died soon after he was born, and his impoverished mother was unable to care for him, so he grew up in an orphanage.  He excelled as an athlete and began weight training at age 16.

Wanting to become an actor, he moved to Hollywood in 1952.  He was photographed by AMG Studio after Bob Mizer spotted him on Muscle Beach.  Above, an AMG photo of Dick Dubois.

Another AMG photo.

Another AMG photo. 

One last AMG photo.  In 1953, a year after moving to Hollywood, Dick entered the Mr. America contest and won second place, and in 1954 he won the contest.

Still trying to become an actor, he got a small part in a 1954 movie called Athena, starring Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell.  That was it for his movie career.  Then he got noticed by Mae West and played in the Mae West Revue.  Rumor says he had a relationship with Mae, who was then in her sixties (he was in his early twenties).  Above, Dick Dubois (left) with Mae West.

In 1957 he won the Mr. USA contest, but then decided to give up bodybuilding and acting to enter the ministry.  He got married in 1959 and had a son.  In the 1970s he was ordained a Pentecostal evangelist minister.  At his death in 2007 he had been pastor of Gospel Lighthouse in West Los Angeles for 19 years.

One last photo.  There seemed to be no frontal photos of Dick Dubois.  Then I came across one that was low-resolution and washed-out, but I had a hi-res version of part of the image; however the hi-res version had been cropped so as not to show the goods.  I have put the two images together to make what I think is the best available frontal image of Dick Dubois, above.