We start with Deuse Hathcock at Mizer’s pool, getting his face hugged by Mizer’s pet monkey—caught right on the edge of losing his balance. It’s cute, playful, a little ridiculous…which is very Mizer. There’s often this layer of “good clean fun” in his work—guys horsing around, nothing to see here—even as something else hums just underneath.
From there we move through a range—Johnny Raines with the same monkey, then birds, cats, dogs, a donkey, even a few men on horseback. Animals weren’t new to photography—Muybridge was studying them decades earlier—but here they show up more as companions or props. Pets, partners, scene-setters…with a little Tarzan or Aladdin energy thrown in for good measure.
What I like about these is how they pull in both directions. A monkey or a house pet softens the image—adds humor, brings the model down to earth. But a German shepherd or a horse can do the opposite—suddenly it’s toughness, control, that rugged Marlboro-man edge. It can be cute, it can be camp, it can be a little absurd—but either way, the body isn’t isolated anymore. It’s in relationship, and that changes how we see it.
Monkeys can be notoriously temperamental, and there's a reason they are shown chained in many AMG photos. At one point, the AMG compound had a mini-zoo sometimes referred to as Mizer's Menagerie that included monkeys, ducks, a goat, and probably more. PETA would have had a fit.
ReplyDeleteFascinating. I’ve seen some films of Mizer models riding donkeys, but I didn’t know he had a zoo. Reminds me of MJ. bns
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