Bathrooms

This set begins with Monte Crown looking as though he stepped straight out of the 1950s and ends with the appropriately named Mike Studwell. 

1. Monte Crown, hirsuted Colt model reaching for yellow towel.

Along the way we encounter Randall Ward, Rick Faulkner, Ty Granger, and several other familiar faces making themselves comfortable in one of the most private rooms in the house.

2. Skip Hammer, fit Champion model with mesh posing strap and foot resting on furry toilet seat (imagine the germs)

3. Randall Ward fellow handsome Champion model at same bathtub as #2 above (minus the pouch)

Bathrooms occupy a special place in physique photography. Nudity makes perfect sense here, which may explain why photographers returned to bathrooms again and again. Sinks, mirrors, tubs, showers, and tiled walls became recurring features of the genre. 

4. Jeff Stryker at a trough urinal in a public restroom with 5 o'clock shadow and Levi's.

In fact, longtime collectors can often identify photographers by their bathrooms as easily as by their models. Walter Kundzicz had his tub. Bruce Bellas had his showers. Bob Mizer had his. The bathroom became both a practical setting and a recognizable signature.

5. Unknown model on restroom floor with huge belt buckle, leaky faucet, and toilet in the background.

6. Rick Faulkner, on the pot with jeans around his ankles.

What fascinates me most is how ordinary these spaces are. Almost every viewer has stood in a bathroom mirror, stepped from a shower, or lingered a little longer than necessary behind a locked door. 

7. Dean Roberts in warm bathroom lighting and strong shadows.

8. Ty Granger stepping into the restroom.

These photographs take familiar experiences and transform them into fantasy. They feel intimate, sometimes voyeuristic, occasionally funny, and often surprisingly believable. 

9. Boris Demitroff playing tug of war in jockstrap in the bathroom.

More than any room we've visited so far, the bathroom asks us to imagine we've been allowed somewhere we're normally not invited. And as we'll see in the coming posts on grooming, showers, furniture, and bedrooms, physique photographers were only beginning to explore the possibilities of domestic life.

10. Mike Studewell beefy Colt model with foot propped on the tub.

 

Please leave thoughts, questions or corrections in the comments.  If you can ID #5 I'm all ears.