Marey

French scientist Étienne-Jules Marey (1830–1904) was a physician, inventor, and one of the great pioneers of motion photography. In 1882, he developed a chronophotographic gun capable of capturing twelve consecutive images per second on a single photographic plate. 

1. Bicycle study - Marey

His goal wasn't art but science. Marey wanted to understand how bodies moved—whether those bodies belonged to horses, birds, fish, elephants, or people.

2. Étienne-Jules Marey

3. Marey in his studio

What fascinates me about Marey is that his photographs often became more beautiful than their original purpose. By layering moments together, he transformed movement into something visible. A runner appears as a ghostly sequence of overlapping figures. 

4. Homme Que Marche - 1895

5. Homme Qui Marche (single frame) - 1895

A bird's wings leave traces across the frame. The body becomes less a fixed object and more a process unfolding through time. Looking at these images today, it's easy to see why artists, photographers, dancers, and filmmakers became so captivated by them.

6. Walking Man Study

7. Male Gymnast Study (handspring vault)

Marey's work laid important groundwork for both Eadweard Muybridge's locomotion studies and the birth of cinema itself. But I also think his photographs speak to something deeper. They remind us that movement is never a single pose. 

8. Walking and Running Man Studies

9. Dancing Man Study

Every gesture contains a past, a present, and a future. For someone interested in dance, photography, and the male figure, that's a pretty remarkable legacy from a scientist who was simply trying to understand how living bodies move through the world.

10. Man on Bicycle Study

Bonus. Pole Vault Study

Please leave thoughts, questions or corrections in the comments.

Kissing

I'm going to kick of the month of July with men kissing. This set begins with Colt stars Bruno and Will Seagers making out in a swimming pool and closes with Gordon Grant planting one on Tony Romano at a construction site. 

1. Bruno and Will Seagers, Colt stars kissing in a pool.

In between are familiar faces including J.W. King, Larry Bordeaux, Duke Richards, Mickey Squires, and several others proving that physique photography occasionally ventured beyond admiration of the male body and into something more affectionate.

2. J.W. King and Mickey Squires, Colt models mustache to beard.

Men kissing each other clears a hurdle that many physique photographs spend a great deal of energy dancing around. Two men can wrestle, shower together, pose nude, or admire each other's physiques and still leave room for plausible deniability. 

3. Unknown modes (both familiar...one with eagle tattoo on his arm, but I cannot place them), kissing on what looks like a sofa.

A kiss changes the equation. For many people, it feels more intimate than sex itself because it moves into the territory of romance, tenderness, and emotional connection.

4. Larry Bordeaux (RT - see post April 11, Drinking) and unknown model in a standing kiss.

5. Joe DaVinci and Lenny Manchester in sailor hats by Bob Mizer.

What I find interesting is how controversial same-sex kissing has been throughout American culture while heterosexual kissing is so common that it barely registers, even in children's cartoons. Maybe that's because a kiss acknowledges something that goes beyond sex. 

6. Duke Richards and Bert Edwards, Nova stars kissing in bed.

7. Chuck Samson (kneeling) and Don Scott in Target Studios loop Pool Party (thank you, Pat!).

It suggests affection, desire, and sometimes even love. These photographs aren't necessarily selling romance, but they're certainly playing with it. And I like that. They remind us that our orientation isn't only about who we want to sleep with. 

8. Paul Seton and Rex Branson locking lips while holding themselves.

9. Mickey Squires and unknown model kissing on an inflatable raft. (I'm not convinced this is Squires, so please confirm if you have other info).

It's also about who we want to hold, kiss, wake up beside, and build a life with. I hope you're finding love, romance, passion—or at least a good kiss—wherever you may be.

10. Gordon Grant and Tony Romano in kneeling kiss on a Colt construction film sit.

Have a great July! Please leave thoughts, questions or corrections in the comments.  I'd love help confirming models in #s 3 and 9 and who second models are in #s 2, 5, 7, and 9.