The secret code of the gay photographer

Six years ago I reported about the US photographer and filmmaker Bob Mizer, who used a secret code to offer his photo models as prostitutes. Today I can present some additional information about it.

Deutsche Version

One of the interesting aspects of encryption technology is that it is often encountered in places where one would not expect to find it.

Bob Mizer

A fine example was brought to my attention six years ago by Erwin In het Panhuis. Erwin’s specialty is the cultural history of homosexuality. He became known, among other things, for his book on “Homosexuality on The Simpsons.” We met at a science slam, where Erwin presented on the history of male homosexuality and I presented on steganography. Who would have thought that there would be overlap in such different topics.

Erwin’s example referred to the gay photographer and filmmaker Bob Mizer (1922-1992). He became famous for nude photographs of muscular men. By the way, such depictions are also called “beefcake” (“meat pie”, loosely translated: “cream slice”). In the then still very prudish and homophobic USA Mizer’s works often met with incomprehension.

Quelle/Source: Quelle: Bob Mizer Foundation

However, Mizer was not intimidated. Despite all hostility and legal imponderables, he created several thousand beefcake films and almost a million photographs during his lifetime. He published the magazine “Physique Pictorial”, whose content consisted almost exclusively of erotic male photographs. It became extremely popular among gay men in the United States. The following examples are taken from the book “The Complete Reprint of Physique Pictorial: 1951-1990“, published by Taschen.

Bob Mizer’s photographs also interested other photographers and artists, who often found and booked models in this way. Mizer and his colleagues also used photo and shooting appointments for sexual contacts with their models.

If you want to know more about Bob Mizer, you should read Erwin’s article published a few days ago on the “web portal Queer.de”.

Mizer’s secret code

Bob Mizer, Erwin told me, used a secret code to provide additional information about his models in his magazine. In addition to information about the reliability of his protagonists, he described their sexual inclinations in this way. This was a service for the business partners among his readers, who could thus book models who met their expectations both in front of the camera and off it.

A steganographic (i.e. hidden) code would have lent itself to the aforementioned purpose. Instead of such a code, however, Bob Mizer used rather conspicuous secret symbols. These can be clearly seen in many of the pictures in the “Physique Pictorial”:

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Quelle/Source: Physique Pictorial

Each symbol represented a characteristic of the respective model. These included sexual preferences, substance abuse, emotional instability, religious zeal, and propensity for violence. Here are some examples:

Quelle/Source: Dian Hanson: “Bob’s World”, 2009, S. 11

Mizer shared the key to the code only with selected business partners. Later, as a precaution, he destroyed all information about it, so no description of the key has been preserved from him. Nevertheless, we know approximately how the code worked. As I know from Erwin, in the book “Bob’s World” (2009) by Dian Hanson on pages 11 to 13 about 70 decryptions are given.

The code is also mentioned in the movie “Beefcake” from 1998, which is available on Dailymotion in three parts (relevant are the movie sequences from 6:25 in part 1 and from 32:30 in part 2):

In Erwin’s article on the “web portal Queer.de” the secret code is also mentioned. Among other things it says there:

“Starting in February 1963, Bob Mizer used mysterious-looking symbols in connection with his photo models, which became more and more numerous. At first Mizer’s explanation was that it was only a ‘subjective character analysis’. ‘ However, there was always the suggestion that they were references to proffered sex practices by the models, who were also sex workers.”

Thankfully, Erwin linked to my blog post from 2015.

A not-so-clever code

Although Mizer destroyed the key, the code got him into some more trouble later, as it could be used to substantiate charges of prostitution and defamation.

Mizer’s actions were not particularly clever. If he had implemented his code using steganographic techniques (i.e. hidden), he could have denied its existence at any time. There would certainly have been many possibilities. One example: For each model, the (alleged) hobbies are specified, such as reading, music, hiking, and swimming. Each of these alleged hobbies stands for a sexual preference. It should be clear that it is almost impossible to prove the existence of a code in this case. Unless one proves that the person in question neither reads nor listens to music nor hikes nor swims.

Even after my last article on the subject, there were a few posts on the question of what a better code could have looked like. I have made one suggestion above. Maybe my readers have some more ideas.

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Further reading: How a steganographic message caused a scandal in Austria

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