Bruce
Harry Bellas (July 7, 1909 – July, 1974) was an influential photographer of the physique of nude males. Bellas was well known under the pseudonym Bruce of Los Angeles.[1]
Bruce
Harry Bellas (July 7, 1909 – July, 1974) was an influential photographer of the physique of nude males. Bellas was well known under the pseudonym Bruce of Los Angeles.[1]
Bellas was born in Alliance, Nebraska and was a chemistry teacher there until 1947,[2] when he began photographing bodybuilders in Los Angeles, California. In 1956, Bellas launched his own magazine, The Male Figure. An extensive archive of Bellas' nude male physique photographs exists today, largely intact. His impact on physique photography is largely felt and recognized, and the works of Robert Mapplethorpe, Herb Ritts, and Bruce Weber are widely considered to be influenced by Bellas' pioneering style. In 1990, the Wessel O'Connor Gallery in New York and the Jan Kesner Gallery in Los Angeles both exhibited a wide array of Bellas' work, furthering modern recognition of his impact.[3] Bellas died while on vacation in Canada in 1974.
BRUCE OF L.A. (BRUCE BELLAS) (1909-1974)
A group of 25 physique photographs of male models and bodybuilders.
Silver prints, 6 measuring approximately 241.3x196.7 mm.; 9 1/2x7 3/4 inches and 19 measuring approximately 114.3x88.9 mm.; 4 1/2x3 1/2 inches, and the reverse, the sheets slightly larger, 8 with Bruce of L.A. hand stamps, and some with the model's names, in ink, on verso. Circa 1960.
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