Al Borge - photographs by Bob Mizer, Athletic Model Guild, circa 1950s

Perversely, since I'm posting images of a "physique model", I have to say that I don't find the actual physique at all interesting. Though the photographs are classically posed and beautifully lit, the figure seems pretty generic "body builder" to me, too smoothed out. And the proportions are not perfect; the calves are, noticeably, too short. But the face. I think it's a wonderful face, expressive even in these static poses; you can somehow sense the thought at the back of his eyes, the words being formed in his mouth. It's a sensuous and elegant face. I almost wish I could go back those sixty-some years, tell him he needn't have spent all that time with the weights, with the tanning, with the oil. He needn't even to have taken his clothes off. It would have been enough for him just to return my gaze.