Bruce of Los Angeles

Bruce of Los Angeles at Wessel + O'Connor Fine Art. "...Born Bruce Bellas in 1909, he was a chemistry professor from Nebraska who would wind up in Los Angeles as the top 'Beefcake' photographer of the 1950's. He started out there in the 1940's, shooting bodybuilding contests and met many of his models while working for Joe Weider's muscle magazine empire, which chronicled the physical culture movement sweeping across America following WWII. Bellas photographed some of the most important figures of this era; bodybuilders Steve Reeves, Ed Fury, and George Eiferman, as well as models such as Joe Dallesandro, Mark Nixon, and Brian Idol. By the 1960s had succeeded in publishing his own magazine, The Male Figure, which allowed clients to order prints of their favorite models."