NEW YORK, NY — BelAmiOnline has made a $5,000 donation to the Bob Mizer Foundation. The Foundation is dedicated to the promotion and preservation of progressive and controversial photography, namely that of late Athletic Model Guild founder, Bob Mizer.
Says BelAmi founder and owner G.Duroy, "In many respects, Mr. Mizer and people like him have made it possible for me to do what I have been doing for 20 years now, as of this year. So it goes without saying that the idea of preserving his early works is a valid and honorable task that I am happy to help make happen."
Mizer is the American photographer and filmmaker who, while producing over 3,000 film titles and one million photographs from the 1940's to the early 1990s, pushed societal boundaries with his work. Bob Mizer became infamous in 1947 when he was convicted of the unlawful distribution of obscene material through the US mail. The material was a series of black and white photographs that he took of young bodybuilders wearing what were known as posing straps — a precursor to the G-string. He served a one year prison sentence at a work camp in California for what now seems like no big deal. At the time the mere suggestion of male nudity was illegal!
Bob Mizer Foundation founder, Dennis Bell says, "Since the 1940s, Mizer was a master of producing work that has featured beautiful young men and expresses the joy and innocence of youth that is perfectly reflected in the productions of G. Duroy and his team at BelAmi. It's only fitting that BelAmi is the very first studio to actively acknowledge the great debt owed to Bob Mizer by the adult industry with a donation to the Foundation. I sincerely appreciate their support and we can now begin to move forward with the proper archival needs of Bob's vintage photographic materials."
The bulk of Mizer’s estate was unceremoniously thrown in the dumpster in 1992 after he died in Los Angeles. Fifty-year-old boxes of correspondence, studio props and personal artifacts from one of America’s most controversial artists are gone forever. Luckily, the core of his life’s work, consisting of about one million photographic negatives and thousands of 16mm films and videotapes, survived the irresponsible action and were boxed up and locked in storage for the next decade.
In the span of his near 50-year career, Mizer created a body of work that both reflected and skewed American ideals of masculinity, ranging from dramatic lit black and white photographs of musclemen to colorfully extreme close-ups of male genitals. He photographed thousands of men, ranging from Hollywood actors and bodybuilders to hustlers and porn stars. His portfolio contains photographs of unique cultural figures, including action star and politician Arnold Schwarzenegger, Andy Warhol muse Joe Dallesandro and contemporary artist Jack Pierson.
View a SFW YouTube video that explains what the Foundation is doing with Mizer’s archives.
Donate to the Foundation’s KickStarter campaign.
