Staffs

Staffs show up so often in physique photography that I could probably devote an entire series to them. I honestly didn't realize how common they were until I started sorting through my collection.

1. Unknown model by German photography studio, Schadewald - 1895 - holding a bamboo staff. I love the criss-cross diagonals between the body and the prop.

2. Larry Hedges by Al Urban taken in his New Jersey studio c 1950.

 

Unlike the spears I'll get to later, these are simply poles or staffs—no pointed tips, no obvious blades. There's still something vaguely martial and masculine about them, but I suspect photographers also liked them because they're so useful. A staff gives the model something to grip, lean against or balance while creating a strong vertical or diagonal line through the photograph. 

3. Raul Pacheco with a dark bamboo staff by Alonzo Hanagan in his NYC studio c 1949.

4. Jerry Tucker reclining on a white box holding a black staff by Dave Martin in the 1950s.

 

And let's not pretend the obvious visual joke isn't right there: a long, rigid pole, rod or lance held by a naked man isn't exactly subtle phallic imagery. Whether every photographer intended it that way is another question, but I'm pretty sure their audience could make the connection.

5. Don Silvas (R) and Andrew Marke (L) by Frederick Kovert, who said Silvas had the "upper hand." Silvas was also photographed by Mizer and others during this same period.

6. Unknown model with a thick pole.  This was on page 19 of some publication but I can't find a name or the photographer credits. Please help if able.

 

The tradition goes back surprisingly far. My earliest example here is a photograph attributed to German Schadewald from 1895, and the staff continues turning up again and again through the mid-century physique era—indoors, outdoors, with individual men and with pairs.

7. Gordon Hanson holding a black staff between two columns by Alonzo Hanagan c 1950. Hanson was also a model for George Platt-Lynes (see Lynes - April 24 post).

8. Gordon Hanson from the same shoot as #7 above in rear view. The framing of the vertical columns against the diagonal staff with the double shadow is striking here.

 

I had far more than ten good examples and could easily have divided them into several posts. I even gave Gordon Hanson two spots because his front and back views were simply too good to choose between.

Maybe that's the appeal: simple, masculine, compositionally useful, and just enough suggestion of a weapon to give the naked man something of a warrior quality—without actually giving him a weapon. 

9. Joe Canoli by Walter Kundzicz in his Newark, New Jersey, studio c 1966.  Although Canoli fits the "boy next door" aesthetic typical of Kundzicz' (Champion's) models, I identify him more with domestic shoots. Apparently he started transitioning to more studio work in the mid-60s, inspired by Hanagan and Urban. Kundzicz is still more "raw" than the others, which is part of the charm.

10. Closing with Albert Struys (L) and Gerard Ferket (R) holding staffs that frame the pair by Studio Arax (Gregor Arax aka Krikor Djololian) in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1951. Arax opened a photography studio in Paris, France, after surviving the Armenian genocide in the 1920s. He was known to use a water-soluble gauche paint to cover frontal nudity to get around censorship laws in shipping his print catalogs internationally.

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