The Homosexual Viewpoint in Canada

When we think of the history of male nude and physique photography we often focus on America.  Bob Mizer is one of the most well known and iconic photographers of the male form. Mizer's The Athletic Model Guild was one of the first studios to focus on the male physique, originating in California in the mid 1940's.   Back when gay men got their nudity fix through the mail, the studios images and magazines were sent all over the world.

That doesn't mean however, there weren't other pioneers, fighting and forging their own path in other parts of the world.  Richard (Rick) Kerr, a Scottish-born entrepreneur, owned two physique studios in Canada, R.R (Rik-Art) and Can-Art which hired photographers to shoot primarily Canadian men.  Their images often published in American and International magazines, and eventually in publications published and distributed in Canada. 

One of the biggest, and most popular was TWO.  Subtitled The Homosexual Viewpoint in Canada, TWO was a gay magazine published for several years in the mid sixties.  The magazine combined physique photography with editorial content including articles, reviews of local gay nightlife as well as gay fiction.  It was one of the first magazines to combine the pictorial content with overtly gay editorial content as well. The title is thought to be inspired by a supplement to the earlier magazine ONE which used the same title as an initialism for 'Truth Will Out'.

TWO was published by Gayboy Publishing on Church St, the same address as a club called the Melody Room in Toronto's gay village. The magazine and club were both owned  Kerr.  The magazine was sold for 75 cents and mostly distributed through the Club.  Eventually, the pictorial element  took on more of the magazines pages.  It did not feature frontal nudity and most of the models wore posing pouches.  One of the magazines featured photographers was Can-Art's Frank Borck, who I believe took all of the shots featured here.

Most of the models however, including issue #4, John Ingle, did pose fully  nude, with those images submitted to other publications, many in the States.  The images show here featured John's appearance in TWO as well as images with fellow model Vern Houston.  You can check out more images of John, and a few more with Vern, on THE FH HERE: