Medium Boxes

Medium-sized boxes begin to function almost like furniture. About the height of a chair or sofa, they invite the model to lean, recline, or fold into the pose rather than simply balance on top of it.

1. Larry Eix aka Madden in a standing profile pose with hands resting on a medium sized bare box.

2. Marty Pelser in a seated recline on a bare box with a semi-erection and cheeky grin.

3. Harry Miller in a seated away facing pose on a medium sized box with some sort of textile tacked onto it and fishing net in the background.

The larger surface creates longer diagonals through the body. Arms can support weight, one knee can rise higher than the other, and the spine naturally curves in ways that feel relaxed instead of posed.

4. Wavey-haired full-bushed Gerard Olivier seated on a medium sized bare white box.

5. 70's and 80's gay porn star (including Centurians of Rome) seated on a bare medium sized box with one leg folded under the other.

6 An unknown model posing for Anglo-Belgian early 20th century painter and sculptor, Jacques de Lalaing on a bare wooden box with arms folded across bent knee and head resting on arms. (VintageMuscleMen just did a beautiful post on de Lalaing on July 13...check it out!)

It's remarkable how many photographers—from the nineteenth century through the physique magazines of the 1950s and beyond—returned to this same simple prop. Different studios, different decades, but remarkably similar solutions.

7. Vince Perry seated on a medium sized box with white draping. Anyone else imagine his left hand holding a pair? Or is it just me?;)

8. Bob Estelita by California Models oiled up and seated on a medium sized draped box in a posing strap.

Strip away the backdrop and lighting, and many of these photographs could easily be mistaken for studies prepared for a painter or sculptor. That's part of what makes them so timeless.

9. Harry Geldfarb in a reclined profile arm support pose with one bent knee on a draped box and posing strap by Bob Mizer (noticed the etched punch bowl gobo lighting effect in the background.)

10. Kenny Owens in a standing twisted dancer pose with one knee bent up onto a draped box. If I were the photographer, I'd ask him to relax his hands a bit;)

Please leave thoughts, questions or corrections in the comments. Thank you. bns