Pillars often appear alongside columns, but they serve a slightly different visual purpose. Rather than referencing a specific classical order, they more often function as framing devices. Physique photographers frequently positioned a model between two cylindrical pillars, creating symmetry while drawing the eye directly to the figure.
1. Bob Kappel by Bob Mizer.
2. Dick Aaron by Bob Mizer - 1953.
3. Al Borge by Bob Mizer - 1950.
Many of these "marble" pillars were almost certainly lightweight studio props finished with painted or laminated faux-marble surfaces (trompe-l'œil, or "trick the eye"). Their job wasn't structural—it was theatrical. They gave modest studios the appearance of grand halls, temples, or palaces, elevating an ordinary posing session into something timeless.
4. I have two names for this model, Fraysure Ferguson and Sam Adams. Please help ID him correctly. The photographer is Douglas Juleff - 1950s.
5. Keith Overton by Bruce Bellas between two pillars. I know at least one fan of a certain type of shadow in this shot.
6. Joe Diaz (or Joe DeMil) by Bruce Bellas.
7. William "Bill" Ritter (left with mustache) and Fred Ritter by Edwin Townsend - 1937. The Ritter Brothers were inspired by model Tony Sansone. This shot was taken in Townsend's Manhattan studio.
Like columns, pillars borrowed the visual authority of classical architecture. But here the architecture often recedes, leaving the model to become the true support at the center of the composition.
8. Howard Heidtmann (with a legendary derriere...I'll award him the title 'legenderriere') by Pat Milo.
9. Arnie Payne, possibly also by Pat Milo.
10. John Manning by Pat Milo - 1956.
Please leave thoughts, questions, corrections or additions in the comments. Thank you, bns
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