Year: 1950’s
Material: Gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper 
Signature: No
Frame: No
Origin: From the Bruce Bellas’ archive
Total size including edges: 35 x 28
Image size: 26 x 26 cm
Condition: Mint

Bruce Bellas (Alliance,1909 – Canada, 1974) AKA Bruce of Los Angeles, was an influential photographer of nude males physique. Bellas was a chemistry teacher until 1947, when he began photographing bodybuilders in Los Angeles, at a time when homosexuality and depictions of full frontal male nudity were illegal. In 1956, Bellas launched his own magazine, The Male Figure. His impact on beefcake photography is largely recognized, and the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, and Bruce Weber are widely considered to be influenced by Bellas' pioneering style.