We've had some retro nudity on the Gay Body Blog before and it seems you guys enjoyed that. It can actually be a little hard to find out there on the Internet theese days, but when I do see it I always feel compelled to write a post about it.
I love this kind of classic photography. It's fascinating to me not only because there were some seriously sexy men back there willing to show it all off, but there's a psychological and sociological aspect to it too. This was back in a time when gay porn was criminal, where men would make up excuses like photographing for "physique" magazines just to enjoy some male nudity.
It's pretty interesting that something created out of such a necessity for so many men, in a secretive way, is now looked at entirey differently, with a new appreciation.
These photos by Russ Warner are a great example of what a handful of men were doing back then, risking prison in many instances too.
I can't help but look at these photos and really appreciate the men involved in the entire project. There's no doubt that most of the men who took their clothes off for shoots like these knew exactly what they were doing.
It makes you realize that even back in the 40's, 50's and 60's there were extremely masculine men like these guys at the front of the gay scene, on the down-low.
Enjoy the photos, leave a comment, share the post around!
Beautiful!