Bruce Bellas a k a Bruce of Los Angeles was born in Nebraska in 1909. He took up photography early in his life, driving though the American heartland taking pictures of farm boys, soldiers and sailors hitching rides along the way, athletic events and bodybuilding contests — he met many of his models while working for Joe Weider’s muscle magazine empire. He started his own magazine, “Male Figure’, in 1956, and was successful enough to buy a suburban home south of Los Angeles two years later. He set up a studio in his garage and photographed models in his fenced in, manicured back yard, and perfected his highly personal style, which combined strong direction, restrained eroticism and midwestern wholesomeness, thus becoming the top beefcake photographer of the fifties.

A new exhibition featuring vintage black and white images produced by Bruce Bellas himself opened this week at Wessel + O’Connor Fine Art gallery in New York City, and will run until December 20, 2008.

In the gallery below, black and white and color pictures of Bruce’s favorite models, including Joe d’Allessandro, Randy Smith and muses Steve Lewis (below) and Scotty Cunningham — Bruce was on vacation in Canada with Scotty when he died in 1974.

Wessel + O’Connor