Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Martin, Dave
- Abstract:
- Martin's photos are of young men, indoors and out, including body builders, college athletes, military and law enforcement men. He refers to his photography genre in a recently published book as male physique photography, tracing the history of the genre back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
- Extent:
- 12.5 linear ft. 21 manuscript boxes, 3 flat boxes (ca. 2600 photographs)
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains ca. 2,600 original photographs by Martin of young men in both indoor studio settings and outdoor locations, including body builders, college athletes, military and law enforcement men. He refers to his photography genre in a recently published book as male physique photography, tracing the history of the genre back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dave Martin became San Francisco's first photographer to specialize in male nude physique studies when he opened his Sacramento Street studio in San Francisco in 1952.
Martin was born and raised in Pennsylvania. In the 1940s he met Lon Hanagan of New York and was inspired by his photographic skills. At that point in time, Hanagan was acknowledged to be the best photographer of the male form in the United States.
Determined to create his own portfolio of physique photographs of young men, Martin became a self-taught photographer of reknown. He controlled all aspects of his photograpy, from posing his models, processing film and doing his own darkroom printing.
His preferred media was black &white film; he started with a 4x5 Super D Graflex, a camera made famous in the 1920s, then later switched to a 4x5 Crown Graphic with electronic flash. Most sessions were 60 shots made on Super Pan Press film, some of which utilized filters for dramatic effect. He controlled his photographic process every step of the way. Dave quickly became known for his darkroom proficiency and the very high quality prints he produced.
Dave Martin photographed all-American young men indoors and out, and was the first to use San Francisco's landmark Golden Gate Bridge, in the 50s as a backdrop for his nudes. While some of Martin's models were young bodybuilders, many were college athletes, men in military service and others came from law enforcement.
Of interest to Stanford researchers is the fact that many of his models were student athletes from Stanford University.
Martin's physique photographs were published in men's muscle magazines of the period. They appeared in Strength &Health, Tomorrow's Man, Vim, Body Beautiful, and others.
His career was at its peak between 1951 and 1974. He currently resides in San Francisco.
- Acquisition information:
- Gift of Dave Martin, 2003.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into 8 series, the first of which are original Dave Martin photographs. Series 1: Caucasian Athletes is comprised of images of caucasian athletes and models. Series 2: Black athletes is comprised of images of African American athletes and models. Series 3: Mixed Athletes is comprised of images of European- and African-American athletes and models. Series 4: Back poses are also a mixture of images of European- and African-American athletes and models. Within each of the boxes containing original photography of nude males by Dave Martin, the photographs are arranged alphabetically by model, following the original arrangement scheme employed by Dave Martin.
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022