# Russ Warner > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Russ_Warner > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Russ_Warner.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Warner > Source revision: 1329513349 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American photographer (1917–2004)}} [[File:Tomorrows Man v2 n3 1954 cover.jpg|thumb|A 1954 cover photo of ''[Tomorrow's Man](/source/Tomorrow's_Man)'' taken by Warner.]] '''Russ Warner''' (1917–2004) was an American [physique photographer](/source/physique_photographer). His photographs of bodybuilders appeared widely in [physique](/source/physique_magazine) and bodybuilding magazines of the 1950s and 1960s. His photography studio was initially located in [Oakland California](/source/Oakland_California); he later relocated to the [Los Angeles](/source/Los_Angeles) area.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|page=292}} == Biography == thumb|An advertisement for a catalogue of Warner's photos from a 1954 physique magazine. This is likely a nude photograph which has been edited to include a drawn posing strap, rendering it suitable for publication. Warner was born Russell S. Warner in 1917. He died on 21 October 2004 in [Escondido, California](/source/Escondido%2C_California). == Career == Originally a bodybuilder himself, Warner began photographing fellow bodybuilders after [World War II](/source/World_War_II).{{sfn|Krauss|2015|page=292}} Unlike many other prominent physique photographers of the time, Warner was heterosexual, though he was aware that gay men comprised a significant portion of the audience for his photos.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|page=299}} === Models === He photographed models in posing straps as well as in the nude.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|pages=292-293}} Warner's models included many bodybuilding titleholders and fitness experts.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|pages=292-294}} He famously photographed the duo of Junior Mr. America Jack Thomas and future television star [Jack LaLanne](/source/Jack_LaLanne) in the nude.{{efn|Sources give the date of this photo set as either 1954 or the late 1940s.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|page=299}}}} LaLanne later attempted to buy and destroy all prints of the photo set, apparently out of concern for their homosexual connotation.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|pages=294, 299}} In 1955, Warner's studio was raided. As a result, Norm Tousley, a man who had modelled for Warner in a posing strap, was fired from his position as a lieutenant of the Oakland Fire Department. Investigators and prosecutors typically targeted physique photographers, publishers, and consumers; scholar [Thomas Waugh](/source/Thomas_Waugh) characterizes this incident as "the most prominent case involving victimization of a model".{{sfn|Waugh|1996|page=274}} === Innovations === Warner was known as the inventor in 1954 of an indoor lighting technique known as "rim lighting", in which he used floodlights to light a model against a black backdrop to highlight the details of their body. === Mail order sales === At some point before 1951, Warner was interviewed in Washington by postal inspectors regarding his distribution of nude photographs with "inked-in" posing straps (a common practice at the time, which allowed customers to easily remove the doctored pouch to reveal the full photo).{{sfn|Johnson|2019|page=65}} He sold nude photographs by [mail order](/source/mail_order) up to the late 1950s. === Magazines === Warner's studio was one of six featured in the debut issue of ''[Physique Pictorial](/source/Physique_Pictorial)'' (then titled ''Physique Photo News'') in 1951, the first of the gay-oriented physique magazines which would achieve wide popularity through the 1950s and early-to-mid 1960s.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|page=214}} Warner, along with [Bob Delmonteque](/source/Bob_Delmonteque), [George Quaintance](/source/George_Quaintance), Anthony Guyther (aka Vulcan Studios), and the studio Christopher, calling themselves the "Big Five" of the physique business, founded the physique magazine ''Fizeek''.{{sfn|Johnson|2019|page=219}} They published only a single issue,{{sfn|Johnson|2019|page=219}} in 1957, before the title was later relaunched in 1959 by [H. Lynn Womack](/source/H._Lynn_Womack). During the early 1960s, Warner worked for [Joe Weider](/source/Joe_Weider), providing photographs for his organization's wide catalogue of magazines, which included gay-oriented posing strap titles like ''[Tomorrow's Man](/source/Tomorrow's_Man)'' and ''Vim'', as well as titles which were seriously devoted to bodybuilding and physique culture, such as ''[Muscle Builder](/source/Muscle_Builder)'' and ''Mr. America''.{{sfn|Krauss|2015|pages=299-301}} Warner continued taking photographs for bodybuilding magazines for several decades thereafter. == Notes == {{notelist}} == References == {{cite journal|title=A Briefly Annotated Bibliography of English Language Serial Publications in the Field of Physical Culture|year=1991|journal=Iron Game History|url=https://www.starkcenter.org/igh/igh-v1/igh-v1-n4-n5/igh0104k.pdf|last1=Todd|first1=Jan|last2=Roark|first2=Joe|last3=Todd|first3=Terry }} {{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/27/arts/art-in-review-50-s-physique-vintage-bodybuilding-photography.html|date=27 July 2001|last=Cotter|first=Holland|work=New York Times|title=ART IN REVIEW; '50's Physique' -- 'Vintage Bodybuilding Photography'}} {{cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8br8z8d/entire_text/|title=Finding aid to the erotic and physique studios photography collection, circa 1930-2005 Coll2014-051|work=Online Archive of California|last=Oliveira|first=Michael C.|year=2017}} {{cite magazine|url=https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/russ-warner-receives-2000-art-zeller-award/|magazine=Iron Man magazine|date=1 July 2000|title=Russ Warner Receives 2000 Art Zeller Award}} == Bibliography == {{refbegin}} * {{cite book|author-link=David K. Johnson|last=Johnson |first=David K. |title=Buying Gay: How Physique Entrepreneurs Sparked a Movement| location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-231-54817-5|edition=eBook}} *{{Cite book|last=Krauss|first=Kenneth|title=Male Beauty: Postwar Masculinity in Theater, Film, and Physique magazines|date=2015|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-1-4384-5000-1|oclc=906090551}} *{{Cite book|last=Waugh|first=Thomas|authorlink=Thomas Waugh|title=Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from Their Beginnings to Stonewall|year=1996|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0-231-09998-3}} {{refend}} == External links == * {{commons category inline}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Russ}} Category:Physique photography Category:20th-century American photographers Category:1917 births Category:2004 deaths --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Russ Warner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Warner) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russ_Warner?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.