Vintage Muscle Men

Saturday, December 13, 2025

James E. Davis Day

James E. Davis (1901-1974) is best remembered as a pioneer of experimental film making, and he was based at Princeton University for years. As those of you who have followed this blog for some time will know, I have posted some of his male nude and semi-nude drawings in the past. Today we have another series, starting with this stunning image of Bob Panicaro.

1929

This G-rated 1929 painting of sailors has a certain appeal.

I believe they are French, but please correct me if they aren't.

Larry Merritt Solo

I think Mr. Davis used a mill pond dam for this photo of Larry Merritt.

We'll see Mr. Merritt later in a duo picture.

Paul Haus and Billy

This 1972 photo features Paul Haus (left) and a guy listed only as Billy.

1931

This pastel of a young man in bed is from 1931.

Ralph Grippo

This photo of Ralph Grippo puzzles me because it along among my collection of James E. Davis photos has what appears to be a color treatment. Or is that just the effect of time since the 1960s?

Just for grins, I've removed the orange tint below:

Raoul Rachou

I don't have a date for this photo of Raoul Rachou.

1938

By 1938 James E. Davis' pastels were taking on a more semi-abstract element.

Larry Merritt and Butler Coleman

I can't tell if Larry Merritt and Butler Coleman are climbing out of or into the quarry pit.

Paul Haus Solo

Closing the set with a solo shot of Paul Haus. There's another guy

on the edge the photo, but Mr. Davis set up the frame this way.

We can safely assume he wanted it to be about Paul.

Friday, December 12, 2025

Muybridge Single Panels Day

Today we are going to look at some individual frames from Eadweard Muybridge's

groundbreaking motion study photos. We start with this man with a scythe.

Arm waving

The great majority of Eadweard Muybridge's motion studies featured men (and women) engaged in everday activities or sports. That coincidentally covered a huge range of anatomical movements. In the case of the above panel and the sequence it is from, however, an unidentified model was hired to simply stand there and wave his arms around for the cameras.

Digger

Researchers have described this fellow digging with a shovel as an actual farmer. I'm not sure

if he is the same man as the one with a scythe in the preceding image in today's set.

Bubble and bounce

We get a clear view of bubble butt and a certain other feature on the bounce in this one.

I've posted other views of this model before, but this version suddenly caught my eye.

Potatoes

More potatoes than meat in the package,

but I love the model's expression.

Ladder climber

This man climbing a ladder looks more like one of the U of Pennsylvania student athletes who posed for Muybridge than the working men hired as models. The students, being athletes, generally appeared in sports settings, but I think there had to have been exceptions.

Redinger and Breen

Several weeks ago I posted some motion study related photos by Albert Londe, the groundbreaking French scientific photographer. The always observant Dee Exx noticed an anvil in one of them and inquired about blacksmiths in Londe's work. I replied that he indeed used them, but the most famous instance was by Eadweard Muybridge. The above single image is from a sequence, and the men have been identified as Redinger and Breen. (No, I don't know which is which.) You can see a GIF of these two from a different angle here:

http://www.vintagemusclemen.com/search/label/Blacksmith?updated-max=2019-10-12T02:30:00-10:00&max-results=20&start=20&by-date=false