Born on this day 103 years ago: pioneering homoerotic photographer, filmmaker, founder of Athletic Model Guild studio and Physique Pictorial magazine, “the Cecil B DeMille of the posing pouch” Bob Mizer (Robert Henry Mizer, 27 March 1922 – 12 May 1992). All these decades later, Mizer’s beautiful, joyous and life-affirming vintage beefcake pin-ups celebrating firm male flesh are STILL widely censored on the internet. In 2023 I visited “A Hard Man is Good to Find!” (billed as “a bold new exhibition charting over 60 years of queer photography of the male physique”) at The Photographer’s Gallery here in London. It featured an actual posing pouch from Athletic Model Guild studios, sewn by Mizer’s mother, displayed in a glass vitrine. It was like witnessing a sacred religious artifact - like the shroud of Turin! (I took a photo which is archived on my phone - I really should post sometime!). Pictured: a “safe for social media” shot of model Beau Rouge photographed by Mizer in Los Angeles, 1954.
