Olympic Photos by Paul Richer - Part 1

 Olympic Photos by Paul Richer, Part 1

Paul Richer (1849-1933), above, was a French anatomist, sculptor, illustrator, and photographer.  During the Paris Olympics in 1900 he convinced dozens of Olympic athletes to pose nude for him to photograph.  I found a source of his photos, including over 50 Olympic athletes, which I will be presenting in a new series starting today.

We start with Edgar Aabye (1865-1941), a Danish athlete and journalist.  Aabye attended the 1900 Paris Olympics not as an athlete but as a journalist covering the event.  However, when a member of the joint Danish-Swedish tug-of-war team was injured, the team asked Aabye, who was also an accomplished athlete, to fill in at the last minute.

Above, the tug-of-war competition between the Danish-Swedish team and the French team.  In 1900, tug-of-war was an Olympic sport (it was dropped after 1920).  The Danish-Swedish team won, earning Aabye a gold medal.

Here are Paul Richer's photos of Edgar Aabye, front view ...

side view ...

and rear view.  Disclosure: Richer's original photos are yellowed and faded, so I have removed yellowing and brightened them. 

Next, we have the athlete above, identified in my source in different photos as Ch. Bouchoux or J. Bouchoux or Y. Bouchoux.  The problem is that in the 1900 Olympics, there were three French athletes, all runners, named Claude Bouchoux, Jules Bouchoux, and Jean Leon Bouchoux, born within a few years of each other in the same French town, so probably brothers.  None of those first names match "Ch" or "Y", and two of them match "J".  So this guy is presumably Claude, Jules, or Jean Leon, but I don't know which one.

Whoever he is, here's a side view ...

and a rear view

Next is French cyclist Émile Bouhours (1870-1953), above.

My source had only a frontal view of Bouhours, not a side or rear view.

Our last athlete today is another French cyclist, Paul Bourillon (1877-1942), above.

Paul Richer's photos of Bourillon were in a bit worse condition than the others.  Here's the front view ...

side view ...

and rear view.

Next time: more Paul Richer Olympic athlete photos.

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.