Bob Mizer

At the time of his death, Bob Mizer was probably best known for his groundbreaking magazine Physique Pictorial: a publication that mixed photographs and illustrations with Mizer's vitriolic political meanderings. In the span of his nearly 50-year career, he created a body of work that both reflected and skewed American ideals of masculinity, ranging from dramatically lit black and white photographs of musclemen to colorfully extreme close-ups of male genitalia. From his home in Los Angeles, he photographed thousands of men, ranging from Hollywood actors and bodybuilders to hustlers and porn stars. His portfolio, estimated at nearly one million different images and thousands of films and video taps, contains photographs of unique cultural figures, including action star and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andy Warhol muse Joe Dallesandro, and contemporary artist Jack Pierson. The collection is now housed at the Bob Mizer Foundation in Northern California, however, following his death, a series of events unfolded that threatened to keep Mizer's work out of the public arena forever.

Courtesy of the Bob Mizer Foundation