June 28, 2012 | Arts / Entertainment

Money raised to archive Bob Mizer's work

The effort to archive the work of famed physique photographer Bob Mizer seems to have been a success.

A Kickstarter project was initiated by Dennis Bell, who acquired Mizer's estate in 2003. He was looking to raise $8,000 in order to buy the necessary archival storage materials needed to protect Mizer's work from the ravages of time.

"All the money raised from this campaign will be used to buy archival storage materials for the hundreds of thousands of 4x5 inch black/white negatives, including new sleeves and storage furniture, and scan it for data-entry into a huge online database which has already been built," Bell explained.

Well, as of yesterday the campaign had raised $9,225! 

But why is Mizer's work so important? Well, his photography set the stage for gay porn long before it was legal. It was the closest thing to gay porn and homosexuality one could find in the printed form.

He created the Athletic Model Guild (AMG) in 1945, publishing pictures of muscled men in very tiny briefs. They were promoted as studies of the male physique, but fans knew their real value as jerk-off material. Mizer would eventually create a collection of nearly one million different images and thousands of films and videotapes.

In 1947, Mizer was convicted of the unlawful distribution of obscene material through the US mail. The material in question was a series of black and white photographs of young bodybuilders wearing posing straps. He spent nine-months at a work camp in Saugus, California.

There are still almost three weeks for fans who wish to donate money to Bell's campaign. You can find out more here.