'Bellas traveled the Midwest on weekends, taking photographs for a postcard company. The photographer also picked up young men along the way....'
Exploring a new found passion for photography, Bruce Bellas (Bruce of Los Angeles) took those young men to motel rooms where he bartered payment and rides for them to pose for him naked. Using his background as a chemistry teacher, Ballas developed and printed those photos in the motel bathrooms.
As difficult as it was to be a photographer of the nude male form, there is something exciting about the risk associated with the story of Bruce Bellas' travels, and visits with young men to all of those motel rooms. Born in Nebraska, the chemistry teacher moved to Los Angeles and began taking pictures of bodybuilding competitions on the weekends in the late 1940's.
I've known of Bellas' work, especially his early physique shots of actor Joe Dallesandro, but only recently began to look for more of his early work. Check out more of my favorite shots on THE NEXT PAGE HERE:
No comments:
Post a Comment