Vintage Military - Part 85

Coast Guard

Previously we have seen the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force.  Nude photos and videos of the Coast Guard are rare, but I found a few of them.  The photo above shows Coast Guard sailors bathing on a ship in the Pacific during World War II.

Likewise, this video shows a shower on the deck of a Coast Guard cutter off Cherbourg, France on August 24, 1944.

This 1950s photo by the Western Photography Guild shows 21-year-old model Billy Joe Carr, who was either in the Coast Guard at the time or had just left it.  There are no photos of Carr showing frontal nudity, but this posing strap leaves little to the imagination.

And here's a rear view of Carr from the same session.

Bodybuilder Ray Routledge had just gotten out of the Coast Guard in 1953 when he was photographed by Russ Warner.  I got the photo from Vintage Muscle Men (thanks, Jerry).

This video is not vintage, but the Coast Guard veteran portrayed here on a nude beach is old enough that we might call him vintage.

We end with a sculpture that is not vintage, either (it dates from 2010), but I have to include it.  It's called The Coast Guard and it's located at the harbor in Fremantle, Australia.

Olympic Photos by Paul Richer - Part 12

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

Performers - Part 80

 RITE by Florence Peake

Igor Stravinsky was a Russian composer.  In his 1913 ballet The Rite of Spring, the plot involves primitive rituals celebrating the advent of spring in which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.  The music is very avant-garde compared to classical music by previous composers such as Tchaikovsky.  The premiere performance of the ballet in 1913 caused a near-riot.  There was no nudity involved – it was the music and the choreography (which involved stomping) that the audience objected to.

Above is Igor Stravinsky in 1912.  He sent this photo to French composer Florent Schmitt with the comment "I send you my nude body, which is not to be seen elsewhere."

In 2018, Florence Peake created a "performance work" partly based on The Rite of Spring called RITE, which critics described as "a primal, erotically charged mud fest."  The mud fest was staged in the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea, England.  Three naked women and two naked men performed on a landscape of wet clay.

First the clothed dancers made things out of the clay.  The dancers became naked and the clay became waterlogged.

The dancers flung clay in fistfuls at the wall while the audience cowered.

It was only during the last ten minutes that a recording of part of the Sacrificial Dance from The Rite of Spring was played.

At the end, Florence Peake (dressed, at center) posed with the performers.  Perhaps it was not a deathless work like The Rite of Spring, which is now considered a masterpiece, but almost anything goes in the name of art.

Photographers - Part 80

Eugene Strait

Eugene Strait, above, lives in Italy.  Unlike some of the other photographers we have covered, Strait's work does not merely include a few male nudes.  All of his photographs are of naked men.  However, he goes further, giving the photos titles that are thought-provoking, creating visual stories in the viewer's imagination.

Consider the photo above.  He titled it "Behold the man."  Of course that alludes to the words "Ecce homo" (behold the man) from the Bible, spoken by Pontius Pilate when he presented Jesus wearing a crown of thorns before his crucifixion, which has become an image in Western art.

But this isn't Jesus.  This is a different "behold the man."  Perhaps it means "Behold the gay man."  Perhaps it means "Behold what men do."

The photo above is titled "Contemplation."  Indeed, he looks contemplative, but he is also a subject for our contemplation.

Another figure of contemplation.  This one is titled "Contemplative Titan."

"Contours of Strength."  We certainly see his contours, but does strength refer to his muscles?  Or his strength of character, posing naked?  And what about the hat?  The photo suggests that there's a story here.

"Eyes on me."  Certainly, eyes are on the figure lit by a spotlight.  But is he being interrogated?  Again, there's a story here.

"Power Profile." This one might be a bit simpler.  Yes, he looks powerful.

We end with "Nocturne Thought."  Perhaps he's thinking about nocturnal activity with someone special.  Again, there's a story here.

Eugene Strait has produced many more nude male photos.  This is only a sampling.

Calendars - Part 81

 Bears Illustrated 2021

Bears Illustrated is an independent illustration project.  For many years it produced a yearly downloadable calendar featuring artwork, not photographs, of bears by international artists.  Not every month featured nudity, but several of them did, as we see in these images from the 2021 calendar.

Above is the image for March by greek artist Zestybob.

April is by Spanish artist Mamanuel.

May is by French artist Bullzilla.

August is by New York artist James Dillenbeck.

October is a Halloween image by Spanish artist Suso.  Ghosts with penises!

We end with the December image by Taiwanese artist Makotobear.

Protests - Part 80

 Naked Handstander, part 5

This is the last part of our mini-series on the Naked Handstander, Jonathan Scholes from Australia.  He has been doing naked handstands all over the world as a form of protest.  Here he is in Utrecht, The Netherlands in 2014.

What is he protesting?  Planned obsolescence – products that are deliberately designed to have a short lifespan so consumers have to buy or upgrade them over and over again.  He hopes that his naked handstands will help draw attention to this issue.

Above, he does a naked handstand in Seoul, South Korea.

Stockholm, Sweden.

The Swedish forest in 2011.

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand.

Brighton beach, England.

London, England, 2011.  That's Tower Bridge in the background.

We end with a naked handstand in New York in 2012.