Close-up - Body Type

At the end of each month, I’m opening things up a bit—calling it a Close-up.

A single image… and a topic I’ve been turning over. I’d love to hear your take.

This month’s topic: Body Type.

Bushnstache looks at a very specific moment in time—and with it, a very specific kind of man. Some people love these images. Others feel like they set a standard that was hard to live up to.

At the same time, walk into a bar today and you won’t exactly find a room full of these physiques either.

So what are we looking at here? A fantasy? A product of its time? A standard that stuck—or one that faded?

Curious how you see it.

Mirror

The mirror shows up constantly in physique photography, and it serves a lot of purposes at once. Sometimes it simply extends the private domestic world we’ve already wandered into—the bathroom after a shower, the quiet ritual of grooming. 

Image 1 - Rick Wayne (mirror in studio)

Other times it leans into something older and more mythic, the classic Narcissus moment: a beautiful man studying his own reflection.

Image 2 - Charles Berendo (holding the mirror)

Image 3 - Jeff Hitchcock (mirror on the floor)

Photographers also loved mirrors for the visual tricks they could create long before digital editing and filters existed. A reflection could capture the front and back of a body in the same frame, layer perspectives, or allow the model to make eye contact with the viewer through the glass instead of directly into the camera. It was an elegant, practical bit of studio magic that added complexity to an otherwise simple setup.

Image 4 - David Tullos (and unkown model horsing around - literally)

Image 5 - John Davidson (covering himself or??)

Image 6 - Kent Thomas (sizing himself up)

I’m personally drawn to these mirror images for another reason as well. There’s something subtly homoerotic about a man admiring his own reflection—watching himself long enough to recognize his own beauty, even his own arousal. In those moments the mirror becomes more than a prop. It turns the gaze back on itself, almost as if the subject is thinking, Yeah… I’d do you.

Image 7 - Paul Duckworth (full body in mirror)

Image 8 - Tony Crater aka John Alexander (facing away from mirror pulling of white tank top)

Image 9 - Robert E. Lee (reflection from the side)

Image 10 - Jean-Luc Differin (facing camera under red spiral staircase)

Notes?

Please fill in any gaps.  I'll add to the post as they come in.  And any feedback is always welcome! Huge thanks!

Bath Towel

Like the shower scenes, the bath towel photos hover in that same private territory—those moments when a man has stepped out of the water, tossed something around his waist, and is just trying to get on with his morning. 

Image 1 - Guy Madison

Of course, towels have a habit of slipping, shifting, or being a little too small for the job… which, from a photographer’s perspective, is often exactly the point. Every now and then the subject even glances straight into the lens, breaking the fourth wall and reminding us that this “private moment” might not be quite so private after all.

Image 2 - Charlie Ram (drying his toes)

Image 3 - Charlie Ram (deserved a second look;)

Image 4 - Luis Santiago aka Julio Lopez (classic coiff)

Image 5 - Luis Santiago aka Julio Lopez (also deserving a second look)

Image 6 - Scott Cunningham (drying and airing)

Image 7 - John Ingle (cool tub and fixtures)

Image 8 - Jim Cassidy (small towel)

Image 9 - John Tall (green tile)

The towel itself appears everywhere in physique photography. You’ll see it on patios, beaches, studio floors, or draped over furniture—sometimes for practical reasons, sometimes for none at all. In this collection, though, I’m drawn to the bath towel in its most ordinary role: part of a man’s daily rhythm, that brief in-between moment after the shower and before the world begins again.

Image 10 - Ray Trembley (great shower curtain)

Feedback?

Please share your favorite shot and why.  Any insight on the models is always appreciated.

Shower

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Locker Room

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Lifting

Weightlifting was closely tied to athletics, but it was also one of the most common forms of male bonding.

Image 1 - Scott McCoy (curling a dumbbell)

When I was growing up, nearly every dad, uncle, or neighbor seemed to have a weight bench somewhere in the house—usually in a garage or basement. On summer afternoons you’d see the garage door open, music blasting on the radio, and a couple of guys lifting together in the heat.

Image 2 - Buddy Hollands (in similar pose except looking into the camera - by Champion)

Image 3 - Jack Stanford (on rot iron bench with two dumbbells)

Image 4 - Rick Alexander aka Rich Sternberger by Sunshine Beach Club (posing with weight bench)

We boys did the same thing. Shirts off, checking each other’s definition in the mirror, spotting one another on the heavier lifts. Sometimes we’d even work out in our underwear so we could see our leg muscles better. Of course we talked about girls, cars, and football to keep things properly macho, but looking back, the whole scene was undeniably intimate.

Image 5 - Helmut Riedmeier (on Swedish ladder)

Image 6 - Buddy Reagan (on leg press machine)

Image 7 - Darryl Powers (using chest expander for bicep curls in a field)

Image 8 - Johnny Stumps ( from Tommy's Christmas Surprise, an AMG-Bob Mizer photo set with models Tony Perry and Tom Scott just out of frame--thank you vintagemusclemen for the info!)

Physique photographers understood this world very well. The images fit neatly into the long tradition of “physical culture” promoted by figures like Bernarr Macfadden, where strength training and healthy bodies were celebrated as part of everyday life. Photographers like Edwin Townsend, known for his elegant images of Tony Sansone, helped turn the weight room into a kind of stage—framing strength, balance, and muscular definition in ways that were both wholesome and quietly sensual.

Image 9 - Mario Garza (resting between reps on weight machine)

Image 10 - Barry Tuck (stacking the weights in jockstrap and towel)

Feedback?

Please send info, ideas, or any other comments on the theme, "Lifting Weights."  There's a lot here to unpack.