Gregor Arax, originally from Armenia, found his artistic sanctuary in Paris after fleeing Turkey in 1922. As a gifted photojournalist, Arax soon became renowned for his captivating photographs of bodybuilders, a path that intriguingly led him to become a celebrated photographer of vintage male nudes.
Spanning four decades in the mid-twentieth century, Arax’s career thrived under the patronage of Lucien Bacquemane, a French poet and an avid collector of bodybuilding photographs. Bacquemane, considered the premier collector in France—and possibly the world—commissioned Arax to photograph these muscular figures both onstage and in more intimate settings. Many bodybuilders consented to pose nude, adding a raw, visceral layer to the photographs, which Bacquemane meticulously preserved in over 7,500 stamped and captioned images, mostly housed in bound albums.
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Arax also found an eager audience in the United States, where he cleverly circumvented stringent postal regulations by disguising the nudity with water-soluble fig leaves, thus allowing American collectors the thrill of revealing the uncensored images themselves.
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Among Arax’s favorite subjects was Charles Kassapian, a bodybuilder and film actor whose robust form and charismatic presence exemplified the photographer’s work. Also notable was Helmut Riedmeier, a formidable competitor in international bodybuilding, who posed for Arax before achieving titles like Mr. Universe and Mr. Europe.
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The article includes stunning images that showcase the beauty and strength of these men, captured through Arax’s lens, emphasizing not only their physical form but also the cultural significance of this bold artistic era.
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Readers are encouraged to explore the full gallery, which includes risqué, yet artistically profound photographs of figures like Kassapian and Riedmeier, revealing the enduring appeal of Arax’s photographic artistry.
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