then I’m unusually thorough. Dennis and I had to see every photo in every set to know that this volume truly represents the 1000 best, from model #1 to Bob’s first full nudes of Brian Idol in ’66. It all began with 16-year-old gymnast Forrester Millard, shot by 24-year-old Bob in mother Mizer’s parlor. Forrester was
“David Hockney famously claimed he came to Los Angeles for two reasons: a photo by Julius Shulman of Case Study House #21, and Bob Mizer’s Physique Pictorial.” straight, as were most Bob models, but still eager to return to the Victorian rooming house near downtown Los Angeles for more photo sessions. “It was fun,” was his simple summation when Dennis Bell interviewed him at age 79 in 2008, so fun that he collaborated on 15 shoots over 14 years. Bob had the knack for making shoots fun and, more crucial, for making his boys feel special. It Opposite: Dennis Lavia in the famous Bob Mizer shower, inspirational setting for paintings by David Hockney, 1965. Above: Unknown contestant in a Muscle Beach bodybuilding contest, ca. 1950. Below left and center: The cover and interior page of the original Thousand Model Directory, self-published by Mizer in 1957. It actually contained over 1000 thumbnail sized photos on 98 pages. Below right: Frank Bird and Frank Renault frolic by the pool at Mizer’s Los Angeles compound, 1956.
shines in their eyes as they gaze up into his lights, their shoulders squared, muscles flexed, oiled skin glistening. Even the street toughs, the hoodlums who were Bob’s Kryptonite, look touchingly proud, heroic, and faintly excited, elevated for an afternoon from bar brawler to gladiator. Once Bob photographed Forrester he couldn’t stop. Friend and fellow photographer David Hurles says that any day without a model left Bob cranky, that he’d rather shoot a subpar specimen than none, that he took his identity from the nearness of near-naked men. Fortunately, feeding his habit was easy. Bob’s ability to engender trust, to instill his passions in others, to convince boys on the beach to travel across town, strip down, and
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pose, was as important to his 47-year career as his photographic skills and movie-driven imagination. As evidenced by his diaries, begun at age 14 and maintained until death, his vision was formed early and never wavered. He was openly gay from boyhood, with not even a token prom date, and determined to do something of lasting importance with his life. When he was imprisoned in 1947 on false charges of sex with a minor model, he wrote his mother, “I feel more strength now than ever before, but this strength, this driving energy, shall be carefully bridled and directed with wisdom . . . my ambition is everything—pleasure, physical sensations mean nothing compared to great accomplishments.” Pretty strong