Bob Mizer’s earliest photographs appeared in 1942, in both color and black and white, but his career was catapulted into infamy in 1947 when he was convicted of the unlawful distribution of obscene material through the US mail. The material in question was a series of black and white photographs,... Read more
Bob Mizer’s earliest photographs appeared in 1942, in both color and black and white, but his career was catapulted into infamy in 1947 when he was convicted of the unlawful distribution of obscene material through the US mail. The material in question was a series of black and white photographs, taken by Mizer, of young bodybuilders wearing what were known as posing straps — a precursor to the G-string. He would serve a nine-month prison sentence at a work camp in Saugus, California for what now seems tame. At the time, however, the mere suggestion of male nudity was not only frowned upon, but also illegal.
In spite of societal expectations and pressure from law enforcement, Mizer would go on to build a veritable empire on his beefcake photographs and films. He established the influential studio, the Athletic Mode Guild (AMG) in 1945 with one or more heretofore unidentified partners, but by the time he published the first issue of Physique Pictorial he was operating the studio on his own. With assistance from his mother, Delia, and his brother, Joe, he would go on to photograph thousands of men, building a collection that includes nearly one million different images and thousands of films and videotapes.
Robert Henry Mizer was born in Hailey, Idaho on March 27, 1922 to Delia Mizer, a recently widowed mother. Five years later she would move, along with her two youngest sons, to a home in Los Angeles, where she took in boarders to support her family. The home at 1834 West 11th St. would become the centerpiece of the AMG compound — a small Hollywood-style studio that spanned four city lots. Here Mizer would build an internationally known photography business, producing images that focused on representations of American masculinity. In his fifty years as an artist, he photographed bodybuilders, US servicemen, male prostitutes, and his fair share of cultural figures, including Arnold Schwarzenneger and Joe Dallesandro.
