Full Sets

Sometimes a backdrop wasn't enough.

Rather than placing a model against a blank canvas or a single prop, photographers projected or built entire worlds. Jail cells, Roman temples, desert ruins, medieval dungeons, woodland hideaways—even Bob Mizer's famous pool became part of an imagined landscape where men naturally existed in little more than posing straps...or nothing at all.

1. Bud Counts by Bob Mizer - 1952 - in a Moorish-style set in a "sword and sandal" themed shot.

2. John Beck by Bob Mizer.

3. Chuck Betz in the same set as above by Bob Mizer.

4. Chuck Betz in action from a short film loop by Bob Mizer.

Many of these sets look delightfully homemade today, and that's part of their charm. Mizer, in particular, seemed less interested in realism than possibility. His sets weren't trying to fool us—they invited us to play along. They created spaces where beauty, camaraderie, adventure, and the male body could exist openly, without apology.

5. Bugs Deal in a desert canyon set by Bob Mizer - 1951.

6. Earl Dean in a medical scene by Bob Mizer - 1950s. I love the bright highlight on the Earl's head and shoulder in upper left corner of the frame.

7. Ramon Gabron in a Bob Mizer outdoor set.

8. Joe Hardee in a jail holding cell set by Bob Mizer in 1983.

Looking back, these miniature worlds feel wonderfully earnest. Behind the papier-mâché columns, painted backdrops, and improvised temples was something more hopeful: an artist building the world he wished already existed.

9. Dave Lancaster by Bob Mizer - 1954.

10. Arnold Alan by Bob Mizer.

11. An unidentified performer portraying a condemned prisoner in the silent film "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" (credited as the most expensive silent film ever made) starring Ramon Novarro and directed by Fred Niblo - 1925, which was nearly a decade before the Hays Censorship Code of 1934. This film included full frontal male nudity, which was omitted for the Charlton Heston version of 1959.

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